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Clinton Presidential Records
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National Service
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Rick Allen
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66
2
2
3
National Service - Now
lenge is great. We must combine the
would be self-defeating: it would
The New York Times
By Bill Clinton
intensity of the post-World War II
squash the spirit of innovation that
2/28/93
years with the idealism of the earty
national service demands.
WASHINGTON
1960's - and help young people afford
By design, our national service pro-
a college education or job training.
gram will not happen overnight. In-
A pathy is dead.
Of everything I've
In 1993, we'll restore the spirit of
stead, it will grow year by year, with
learned in my first
service by asking our people to serve
funding reaching $3 billion 5 1997.
few weeks in the
here at home. We won't refight the
And as I've said many times, I be-
White House. that's
wars we won, but we'll tackle the
lieve it will be the best money we ever
the thing that's made
growing domestic dangers that
spend.
me the happiest. Whether or not the
threaten our future.
If Congress gives us the chance,
people I've met outside the capital
Our new initiative will embody the
this summer we'll create an eight-
support the changes I have proposed,
same principles as the old G.I. BIIL It
week leadership training program.
they're all saying they're ready to
will challenge our people to serve our
We'll recruit more than 1,000 young
rebuild our country.
country and do the work that should
people for special projects to meet
But they know, as I do, that no
- and must - be done. It will give
the needs of children at risk - and to
economic plan can do it alone. A plan
those who serve the honor and re-
train the first class of full-year par-
can make vaccines available to chil-
wards they deserve. It will invest in
ticipants.
dren. but alone It will not administer
the future of the quiet heroes who
In the first full year of our initiative,
the shots to all of them. It can put
invest in the future of others.
we'll launch our flexible loan program
security guards in the schools, but
The national service legislation
and aim to put tens of thousands of
alone it will not take gangs off the
that I will send to Congress shortly
people to work. By 1997, more than
streets. And it can provide more aid
will give our people the chance to
100,000 citizens could be serving our
for college, but alone it will not make
serve in two basic ways:
country, getting education and train-
the costs of college less daunting for
First, it will make it easier for
ing benefits in return. And hundreds
the middle class.
young people to hold low-paying pub-
of thousands more people could be
That's why I believe we need na-
lic service jobs and still pay off their
doing invaluable work because col-
tional service - now.
student loans.
lege loans no longer ock the way.
If Congress acts quickly enough, just
Under our program, Americans
But the best pla -ing and the most
months from now more than 1,000
will be able to borrow the money they
ambitious design won't make this VI-
young people will start serving our
need for college and pay it back as a
sion of national service a reality. That
country in a special summer effort. In
small percentage of their income
responsibility ultimately rests with
four years, the successors to these
over time. By giving graduates the
the American people.
pioneers will multiply a hundredfold.
chance to repay loans on an afford-
I am convinced that after 12 years
Imagine: an army of 100,000 young
able. reasonable schedule, this "in-
of drifting apart instead of working
people restoring urban and rural com-
come-contingent" program will allow
together we are ready to meet the
munities and giving their labor in re-
our people to do the work that our
challenge. From a 14-year-old boy in
turn for education and training.
communities really need.
North Dakota who sent us $1,000 to
National service is an idea as old as
Second. our legislation will create
help pay off the deficit, to a 92-year-
America. Time and again, our people
new opportunities for Americans to
old widower in Kansas who followed
have found new ways to honor citizen-
serve our country for a year or two
his example, people are demonstrat-
ship and match the needs of changing
and receive financial support for edu-
ing that they want to give something
back to their nation.
times.
cation or training in return.
Lincoln's Homestead Act rewarded
National service will exercise our
We'll offer people of different ages
those who had the courage to settle the
talents and rebuild our communities.
and educational levels different ways
frontier with the land to raise a family.
to serve. And to focus our energies and
It will harness the energy of our
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Social Securi-
youth and attack the problems of our
get the most for our money, we'll direct
ty Act insured that Americans who
time. It will bring together men and
special attention to a few areas:
work a lifetime can grow old with
women of every age and race and lift
We'll ask thousands of young peo-
dignity. Harry S. Truman's G.I. Bill
up our nation's spirit. And for all of
ple to serve in our schools - some as
rewarded the service of my father's
us, it will rekindle the excitement of
teachers, others as youth mentors,
generation, transforming youthful ver-
being Americans.
reading specialists and math tutors.
erans into an army of educated civil-
They'll join the effort to insure that
ians that led our nation into a new era.
our schools offer the best education in
For my generation, use reality of
the world.
national service was born 32 years
We'll send people into medical
ago tomorrow, when President John
clinics to help immunize the nation's
F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps.
At its peak. the Peace Corps enrolled
2-year-old. Some participants will be
only 16,000 volunteers yet n changed
qualifie. to give the shots, but thou-
sands of others can provide essential
the way a generation of Americans
look at themselves and the world.
support, contacting parents and
Today, the spirit of our people once
following up to make sure children
again can meet head-on the troubles
get the shots they need.
of our times.
We'll help police forces across the
The task is as complex as our chal-
country through a new Police Corps
trained to walk beats. We'll also or-
President Clinton will deliver a
ganize others in our communities to
speech on national service tomorrow
keep kids out of gangs and off drugs.
at Rutgers University.
We'll put still others to work con-
trolling pollution and recycling waste,
to help insure that we pass on to our
children a nation that is clean and
safe for years to come.
Our national service program will
offer more than benefits to individ-
uals. We'll help pay operating costs
for community groups with proved
track records, providing the support
they'll need to grow. And we'll let
entrepreneurs compete for venture
capital to develop new service pro-
grams.
While the Federal Government will
provide the seed money for national
service, we are determined that the
participants - the individuals who
serve and the groups that sponsor
their service will guide the process.
Spending tens of millions of tax dol-
lars to build a massive bureaucracy
THE WASHINGTON POST
SATURDAY. MARCH 13. 1
Yet Clinton's philosophy of service rep-
resents intellectual newness to many in
high school and college. John F. Kennedy's
appeais to national service are seen as
historical relics, known from books but not
live on MTV as are Clinton's. It wasn't a
SATURDAY. MARCH 13. 1993 A21
politician's celebrityhood that created sup-
port for the president at Notre Dame and
Rutgers. Students saw in him someone
Colman McCarthy
with a positive message-put community
interest above self-interest-that many
professors and counselors at their schools
Clinton's
had been exposing them to all along: If you
can't teach the illiterate, comfort the sick
and handicapped, or mend whatever and
whoever is broken during your college
Call to
years, you're receiving a limited education.
Clinton deserves to be honored for
taking a risk that he'll be able to raise the
Service
money for his program of national ser-
vice. Critics in Congress with no greater
agenda than carping about ideas they
were too dull-witted or timid to propose
No speech in the Clinton campaign
themselves now lie in wait for the presi-
was more inspirational than the candi-
dent when he comes in with specifics.
date's remarks at the University of No-
They will say Clinton's ideas are danger-
tre Dame last September. As president,
ous because they are romantic and utopi-
Clinton didn't match it until his March 1
an, a charge that ignores the thought of
speech at Rutgers University. At both
James Madison in 1788: "No theoretical
campuses, he issued calls for national
checks-no form of government, can
service for college students.
render us secure. To suppose that any
At Notre Dame: "If we are truly to
form of government will secure liberty or
practice what we preach, Americans of
happiness without any virtue in the peo-
every faith and viewpoint should come
pie is a chimerical idea."
together to promote the common good."
Some critics charge that Clinton is into
It was similar at Rutgers: "National ser-
bribery: tuition money for service. While
vice is nothing less than the American
the details are being worked out on how
way to change America."
much money for what service, who com-
Clinton's effort to rally the young to
plains that the U.S. Army entices re-
altruism has created a debate that pits
cruits with as much as $20,000 toward a
idealism against realism, as if the two are
college education. Why isn't it bribery
forever locked in conflict. Where's the mon-
when ROTC programs pay students to
ey, ask reansts. IOT the turdon-for-service
shine their boots occasionally and take
3389
gut courses in military lore. Nor is much
million in scholarships for 25,000 students
alarm expressed over the most lavish
the first year and $3.4 billion for 100,000
enticement of all: a free ride at the
by 1997. Realists say that Clinton's sweet
military academies in exchange for a few
talk ignores sour facts: There's no money
years in uniform after graduation.
for a new social program.
Clinton's Rutgers speech marked the
From that negative, despairing argu-
32nd anniversary of the Peace Corps. Ken-
ment, Clinton is supposed to get the
nedy's spirited message was repeated by
message: Don't even try. That means
Clinton: "Answer the call to service." In
don't lead, just preside. The past 12 years
"The Bold Experiment," a history of the
witnessed two presiders in the White
Peace Corps by Gerard Rice, one of those
House. Most first-year college students
who responded to Kennedy's call explained
today were in kindergarten when Ronald
why: "I'd never done anything political,
Reagan was elected and in fourth grade
patriotic or unselfish because nobody ever
when reelected. They came into adoles-
asked me to. Kennedy asked."
cence under a politician who tried nothing
So has Clinton.
by way of linking government with nation-
al service. Instead of selflessness to oth-
ers, he extolled self-enrichment.
Evidence suggests that the young
weren't seduced either by Reagan's mes-
sage of contempt for government or his
disdain for altruism. The 1980s saw a
surge in campus community-service pro-
grams, such as the ones Clinton praised
at Notre Dame and Rutgers. Amnesty
International chapters increased on cam-
puses, as did those of Oxfam USA. Appli-
cations to Peace Corps remained high, as
they did for such private domestic pro-
the losuit Volunteer and
BACKGROUNDER ON
PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
Timing. The President will submit his legislation to Congress
soon -- certainly this spring. We are still working out the
details because we want to get it right.
Two parts. The legislation has two parts. One part will create
opportunities for young people to serve our country and help pay
for college in return. The other part will enable young people to
pay back their student loans as a small percentage of their
income over time, so they can take essential community jobs and
still pay off their loans.
Funding. The President has requested $7.4 for national service
over the next four ears. The funding level rises each year, to
$3.4 billion in 1997, because this initiative aims to support the
growing work of America's communities -- not overwhelm it.
Funding starts at $400 million in appropriations and $100 million
in outlays next year.
Number of Participants. The numbers will reflect the enthusiasm
of the American people and the ingenuity of our communities in
developing solid ways to put our people's energy to work. By
1997, we believe there could be more than 100,000 young people
paying for post-secondary education by serving their country, and
hundreds of thousands more serving because loans no longer block
the way.
Eligibility and benefits. Students before, during and after
college will be eligible to serve for a year or two. In return,
they will get a small stipend, health and child care benefits
where necessary, and an educational benefit to pay for college or
job training.
Activities. The program aims to meet unmet needs in critical
areas. It is not job training. Possible tasks include: teaching
or serving as a teachers aid or mentor; working as a police
officer or desk aide; providing health care or doing linked
outreach and administrative; recycling or controlling pollution.
Administration. The program will be non-bureaucratic, using
venture capital to support entrepreneurs and public-private
partnerships to support growing programs. States will be given
the opportunity to design national service plans to meet their
particular needs. Within guidelines to prevent fraud and ensure
that important work gets done, local organizations will be given
the opportunity to design and implement solutions to local needs.
Nondisplacement, The legislation will include strict
nondisplacement and nonduplication provisions. National service
will only meet needs that are not otherwise being met.
BACKGROUNDER ON
PRESIDENT'S SUMMER OF SERVICE PROGRAM
Overview. At 4 to 10 sites around the country, the Summer of
Service will involve 1,000 diverse young people in a program to
help children at-risk and provide leadership training.
Funding. The program will be funded with a $15 million
appropriation in the FY 93 stimulus package.
Goals. The program has two major goals: To show what national
service can accomplish, meeting critical needs and bringing
people together; and to develop a leadership corps for future
years of national service through the President's initiative.
National service was such a priority of the President, he didn't
want to let it wait a year.
Targeted needs. The programs in the Summer of Service aim to help
children-at-risk in the areas of education, health, crime
prevention, and environmental protection. Some participants will
tutor; some will help provide shots; some will develop
recreational centers; some will counsel youths to keep them out
of gangs. The possibilities are as diverse as our problems, but
the goal is always the same: tangible, meaningful change to help
children-at-risk.
Participation. At least 1,000 young people will participate in
the program at at a select number of sites around the country.
Participants will be a diverse group -- including high school
dropouts and college graduates -- but they all must bring
leadership qualities to the program.
Leadership training. For several days at the beginning of the
summer and several at the end, the young people will gather to
share their experiences and complete an intensive leadership
program.
SEA Change Awards. Service Entrepreneurial Awards will be
available to a few participants (25) with ideas to start new
service programs. All participants who are interested in
continuing to work through the next year will receive placement
assistance.
Administration. The Commission on National and Community Service
will administer a competitive process to determine what programs
participate. The Commission is working quickly to ensure that
programs are developed quickly and efficiently to succeed for
this summer.
NATIONAL SERVICE
GENERAL TALKING POINTS
National Service as a challenge to young people:
America has serious problems. If young people don't solve
them, nobody will. That's why we are challenging America's youth
to a season of service. You can create America's future -- and
change your own. The country belongs to you if you will seize
this opportunity.
Government leaves off somewhere. It can make immunizations
available, but it can't make kids show up for shots. It can put
more money into Head Start, but it can't teach all the kids who
need to join. It can spend more on police organizations, but it
can't mobilize communities to protect themselves. And it can
raise penalties for pollut: on, but it can't force people to
recycle.
*
Young people have a unique ability to fulfill these needs.
You have the energy. You have the ideas. You have the
determination. Bill Clinton wants to give you the tools to make
it happen.
I know that today, with COOL, I am preaching to the choir.
You are doing it already. Some of you are teaching children to
read. Some are providing shelter to the needy. Some are doing
environmental audits. And some are giving kids the medical care
they desperately need.
*
And all of you aren't just doing; you're leading. You're
showing the way for the rest of America.
*
You are the forefront of the movement that Bill Clinton
supports. You are the young people who are "changing America
forever, and for the better," as Bill Clinton urged in his
Rutgers speech
*
So today I am just saying: Keep doing what you are doing --
but do it more. Double your efforts. Get your friends involved.
Get your teachers or your parents to work with you. Go get
businesses to pay for what you are doing. Because this season of
service will be led by youth -- but it has to be joined by
everyone.
*
I am here to tell you: The President is with you and behind
you -- we won't get ahead of you -- but we believe in everything
you stand for, and we want to help.
National Service - Now
lenge is great. We must combine the
would be self-defeating; it would
The New York Times
By Bill Clinton
intensity of the post-World War II
squash the spirit of innovation that
2/28/93
years with the idealism of the earty
national service demands.
WASHINGTON
1960's - and help young people afford
By design, our national service pro-
a college education or job training.
gram will not happen overnight. In-
A pathy is dead.
Of everything I've
In 1993, we'll restore the spirit of
stead, it will grow year by year, with
learned in my first
service by asking our people to serve
funding reaching $3 billion in 1997.
few weeks in the
here at home. We won't refight the
And as I've said many times, I be-
White House, that's
wars we won, but we'll tackle the
lieve it will be the best money we ever
the thing that's made
growing domestic dangers that
spend.
me the happiest. Whether or not the
threaten our future.
If Congress gives us the chance,
people I've met outside the capital
Our new initiative will embody the
this summer we'll create an eight-
support the changes I have proposed,
same principles as the old G.I. BIIL It
week leadership training program.
they're all saying they're ready to
will challenge our people to serve our
We'll recruit more than 1,000 young
rebuild our country.
country and do the work that should
people for special projects to meet
But they know, as I do, that no
- and must - be done. It will give
the needs of children at risk and to
economic plan can do it alone. A plan
those who serve the honor and re-
train the first class of full-year par-
can make vaccines available to chil-
wards they deserve. It will invest in
ticipants.
dren. but alone it will not administer
the future of the quiet heroes who
In the first full year of our initiative,
the shots to all of them. It can put
invest in the future of others.
we'll launch our flexible loan program
security guards in the schools, but
The national service legislation
and aim to put tens of thousands of
alone it will not take gangs off the
that I will send to Congress shortly
people to work. By 1997, more than
streets. And it can provide more aid
will give our people the chance to
100,000 citizens could be serving our
for college, but alone it will not make
serve in two basic ways:
country, getting education and train-
the costs of college less daunting for
First, it will make it easier for
ing benefits in return. And hundreds
the middle class.
young people to hold low-paying pub-
of thousands more people could be
That's why I believe we need na-
lic service jobs and still pay off their
doing invaluable work because col-
tional service now.
student loans.
lege loans no longer ock the way.
If Congress acts quickly enough, just
Under our program, Americans
But the best plz "ing and the most
months from now more than 1,000
will be able to borrow the money they
ambitious design won't make this VI-
young people will start serving our
need for college and pay it back as a
sion of national service a reality. That
country in a special summer effort. In
small percentage of their income
responsibility ultimately rests with
four years, the successors to these
over time. By giving graduates the
the American people.
pioneers will multiply a hundredfold.
chance to repay loans on an afford-
I am convinced that after 12 years
Imagine: an army of 100,000 young
able. reasonable schedule, this "in-
of drifting apart instead of working
people restoring urban and rural com-
come-contingent" program will allow
together we are ready to meet the
munities and giving their labor in re-
our people to do the work that our
challenge. From a 14-year-old boy in
turn for education and training.
communities really need.
North Dakota who sent us $1,000 to
National service is an idea as old as
Second. our legislation will create
help pay off the deficit, to a 92-year-
America. Time and again, our people
new opportunities for Americans to
old widower in Kansas who followed
have found new ways to honor citizen-
serve our country for a year or two
his example, people are demonstrat-
ship and match the needs of changing
and receive financial support for edu-
ing that they want to give something
back to their nation.
times.
cation or training in return.
Lincoln's Homestead Act rewarded
National service will exercise our
We'll offer people of different ages
those who had the courage to settle the
talents and rebuild our communities.
and educational levels different ways
frontier with the land to raise a family.
It will harness the energy of our
to serve. And to focus our energies and
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Social Securi-
youth and attack the problems of our
get the most for our money, we'll direct
ty Act insured that Americans who
time. It will bring together men and
special attention to a few areas:
work a lifetime can grow old with
women of every age and race and lift
We'll ask thousands of young peo-
dignity. Harry S. Truman's G.I. Bill
up our nation's spirit. And for all of
ple to serve in our schools - some as
rewarded the service of my father's
us, it will rekindle the excitement of
teachers, others as youth mentors,
generation, transforming youthful vet-
being Americans.
reading specialists and math tutors.
erans into an army of educated civil-
They'll join the effort to insure that
ians durt lest our nation into a new era.
our schools offer the best education in
For my generation, the reality of
the world.
national service was born 32 years
We'll send people into medical
ago tomorrow, when President John
F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps.
clinics to help immunize the nation's
-year-olds. Some participants will be
At its peak. the Peace Corps enrolled
only 16,000 volunteers yet It changed
unlified to give the shots, but thou-
the way a generation of Americans
sands of others can provide essential
look at themselves and the world.
support, contacting parents and
Today, the spirit of our people once
following up to make sure children
again can meet head-on the troubles
get the shots they need.
of our times.
We'll help police forces across the
The task is as complex as our chal-
country through a new Police Corps
trained to walk beats. We'll also or-
President Clinton will deliver a
ganize others in our communities to
speech on national service tomorrow
keep kids out of gangs and off drugs.
at Rutgers University.
We'll put still others to work con-
trolling pollution and recycling waste,
to help insure that we pass on to our
children a nation that is clean and
safe for years to come.
Our national service program will
offer more than benefits to individ-
uals. We'll help pay operating costs
for community groups with proved
track records, providing the support
they'll need to grow. And we'll let
entrepreneurs compete for venture
capital to develop new service pro-
grams.
While the Federal Government will
provide the seed money for national
service. we are determined that the
participants - the individuals who
serve and the groups that sponsor
their service will guide the process.
Spending tens of millions of tax dol-
lars to build a massive bureaucracy
THE WASHINGTON POST
SATURDAY. MARCH 13. 1
Yet Clinton's philosophy of service rep-
resents intellectual newness to many in
high school and college. John F. Kennedy's
appeais to national service are seen as
historical relics, known from books but not
live on MTV as are Clinton's. It wasn't a
SATURDAY. MARCH 13. 1993 A21
politician's celebrityhood that created sup-
port for the president at Notre Dame and
Rutgers. Students saw in him someone
Colman McCarthy
with a positive message-put community
interest above self-interest-that many
professors and counselors at their schools
Clinton's
had been exposing them to all along: If you
can't teach the illiterate, comfort the sick
and handicapped, or mend whatever and
Call to
whoever is broken during your college
years, you're receiving a limited education.
Clinton deserves to be honored for
taking a risk that he'll be able to raise the
Service
money for his program of national ser-
vice. Critics in Congress with no greater
agenda than carping about ideas they
were too dull-witted or timid to propose
No speech in the Clinton campaign
themselves now lie in wait for the presi-
was more inspirational than the candi-
dent when he comes in with specifics.
date's remarks at the University of No-
They will say Clinton's ideas are danger-
tre Dame last September. As president,
ous because they are romantic and utopi-
Clinton didn't match it until his March 1
an. a charge that ignores the thought of
speech at Rutgers University. At both
James Madison in 1788: "No theoretical
campuses, he issued calls for national
checks-no form of government, can
service for college students.
render us secure. To suppose that any
At Notre Dame: "If we are truly to
form of government will secure liberty or
practice what we preach, Americans of
happiness without any virtue in the peo-
every faith and viewpoint should come
ple is a chimerical idea."
together to promote the common good."
Some critics charge that Clinton is into
It was similar at Rutgers: "National ser-
bribery: tuition money for service. While
vice is nothing less than the American
the details are being worked out on how
way to change America."
much money for what service, who com-
Clinton's effort to rally the young to
plains that the U.S. Army entices re-
altruism has created a debate that pits
cruits with as much as $20,000 toward a
idealism against realism, as if the two are
college education. Why isn't it bribery
forever locked in conflict. Where's the mon-
when ROTC programs pay students to
ey. ask reansts, for the tuition-for-service
shine their boots occasionally and take
program
that
5389
gut courses in military lore. Nor is much
million in scholarships for 25,000 students
alarm expressed over the most lavish
the first year and $3.4 billion for 100,000
enticement of all: a free ride at the
by 1997. Realists say that Clinton's sweet
hilitary academies in exchange for a few
talk ignores sour facts: There's no money
years in uniform after graduation.
for a new social program.
Clinton's Rutgers speech marked the
From that negative, despairing argu-
32nd anniversary of the Peace Corps. Ken-
ment, Clinton is supposed to get the
nedy's spirited message was repeated by
message: Don't even try. That means
Clinton: "Answer the call to service." In
don't lead, just preside. The past 12 years
"The Bold Experiment," a history of the
witnessed two presiders in the White
Peace Corps by Gerard Rice, one of those
House. Most first-year college students
who responded to Kennedy's call explained
today were in kindergarten when Ronald
why: "I'd never done anything political,
Reagan was elected and in fourth grade
patriotic or unselfish because nobody ever
when reelected. They came into adoles-
asked me to. Kennedy asked."
cence under a politician who tried nothing
So has Clinton.
by way of linking government with nation-
al service. Instead of selflessness to oth-
ers, he extolled self-enrichment.
Evidence suggests that the young
weren't seduced either by Reagan's mes-
sage of contempt for government or his
disdain for altruism. The 1980s saw a
surge in campus community-service pro-
grams, such as the ones Clinton praised
at Notre Dame and Rutgers. Amnesty
International chapters increased on cam-
puses, as did those of Oxfam USA. Appli-
cations to Peace Corps remained high, as
they did for such private domestic pro-
28 the lesuit Volunteer Corpa and
BACKGROUNDER ON
PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
Timing. The President will submit his legislation to Congress
soon -- certainly this spring. We are still working out the
details because we want to get it right.
Two parts. The legislation has two parts. One part will create
opportunities for young people to serve our country and help pay
for college in return. The other part will enable young people to
pay back their student loans as a small percentage of their
income over time, so they can take essential community jobs and
still pay off their loans.
Funding. The President has requested $7.4 for national service
over the next four ears. The funding level rises each year, to
$3.4 billion in 1997, because this initiative aims to support the
growing work of America's communities -- not overwhelm it.
Funding starts at $400 million in appropriations and $100 million
in outlays next year.
Number of Participants. The numbers will reflect the enthusiasm
of the American people and the ingenuity of our communities in
developing solid ways to put our people's energy to work. By
1997, we believe there could be more than 100,000 young people
paying for post-secondary education by serving their country, and
hundreds of thousands more serving because loans no longer block
the way.
Eligibility and benefits. Students before, during and after
college will be eligible to serve for a year or two. In return,
they will get a small stipend, health and child care benefits
where necessary, and an educational benefit to pay for college or
job training.
Activities. The program aims to meet unmet needs in critical
areas. It is not job training. Possible tasks include: teaching
or serving as a teachers aid or mentor; working as a police
officer or desk aide; providing health care or doing linked
outreach and administrative; recycling or controlling pollution.
Administration. The program will be non-bureaucratic, using
venture capital to support entrepreneurs and public-private
partnerships to support growing programs. States will be given
the opportunity to design national service plans to meet their
particular needs. Within guidelines to prevent fraud and ensure
that important work gets done, local organizations will be given
the opportunity to design and implement solutions to local needs.
Nondisplacement. The legislation will include strict
nondisplacement and nonduplication provisions. National service
will only meet needs that are not otherwise being met.
BACKGROUNDER ON
PRESIDENT'S SUMMER OF SERVICE PROGRAM
Overview. At 4 to 10 sites around the country, the Summer of
Service will involve 1,000 diverse young people in a program to
help children at-risk and provide leadership training.
Funding. The program will be funded with a $15 million
appropriation in the FY 93 stimulus package.
Goals. The program has two major goals: To show what national
service can accomplish, meeting critical needs and bringing
people together; and to develop a leadership corps for future
years of national service through the President's initiative.
National service was such a priority of the President, he didn't
want to let it wait a year.
Targeted needs. The programs in the Summer of Service aim to help
children-at-risk in the areas of education, health, crime
prevention, and environmental protection. Some participants will
tutor; some will help provide shots; some will develop
recreational centers; some will counsel youths to keep them out
of gangs. The possibilities are as diverse as our problems, but
the goal is always the same: tangible, meaningful change to help
children-at-risk.
Participation. At least 1,000 young people will participate in
the program at at a select number of sites around the country.
Participants will be a diverse group -- including high school
dropouts and college graduates -- but they all must bring
leadership qualities to the program.
Leadership training. For several days at the beginning of the
summer and several at the end, the young people will gather to
share their experiences and complete an intensive leadership
program.
SEA Change Awards. Service Entrepreneurial Awards will be
available to a few participants (25) with ideas to start new
service programs. All participants who are interested in
continuing to work through the next year will receive placement
assistance.
Administration. The Commission on National and Community Service
will administer a competitive process to determine what programs
participate. The Commission is working quickly to ensure that
programs are developed quickly and efficiently to succeed for
this summer.
NATIONAL SERVICE
GENERAL TALKING POINTS
National Service as a challenge to young people:
*
America has serious problems. If young people don't solve
them, nobody will. That's why we are challenging America's youth
to a season of service. You can create America's future -- and
change your own. The country belongs to you if you will seize
this opportunity.
*
Government leaves off somewhere. It can make immunizations
available, but it can't make kids show up for shots. It can put
more money into Head Start, but it can't teach all the kids who
need to join. It can spend more on police organizations, but it
can't mobilize communities to protect themselves. And it can
raise penalties for polluti on, but it can't force people to
recycle.
*
Young people have a unique ability to fulfill these needs.
You have the energy. You have the ideas. You have the
determination. Bill Clinton wants to give you the tools to make
it happen.
*
I know that today, with COOL, I am preaching to the choir.
You are doing it already. Some of you are teaching children to
read. Some are providing shelter to the needy. Some are doing
environmental audits. And some are giving kids the medical care
they desperately need.
*
And all of you aren't just doing; you're leading. You're
showing the way for the rest of America.
*
You are the forefront of the movement that Bill Clinton
supports. You are the young people who are "changing America
forever, and for the better," as Bill Clinton urged in his
Rutgers speech.
*
So today I am just saying: Keep doing what you are doing --
but do it more. Double your efforts. Get your friends involved.
Get your teachers or your parents to work with you. Go get
businesses to pay for what you are doing. Because this season of
service will be led by youth -- but it has to be joined by
everyone.
*
I am here to tell you: The President is with you and behind
you -- we won't get ahead of you -- but we believe in everything
you stand for, and we want to help.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New Brunswick, New Jersey)
For Immediate Release
March 1, 1993
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN NATIONAL SERVICE ADDRESS
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
1:15 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Thank you. Thank you, Nakia Tomlinson for that fine
introduction. I wish I could take you with me everywhere. We'd
make a great duo there. Let's give her another hand. I thought
she was great. (Applause.)
I'd like to thank President Frank Lawrence for his -
Francis Lawrence -- for his fine speech. Does anybody call him
Frank? I should have asked. (Laughter.) I want to compliment
Professor Benjamin Barber for his leadership and service here.
(Applause.) And I want to thank all of you here in the Rutgers
community for coming out for what I hope will be a truly historic
moment in our nation's history. (Applause.)
In addition to the people who have been introduced
here, there are a host of mayors and members of the Assembly and
county officials here from your state. We have two former
governors, both of whom I served with -- Brendan Byrne and Tom
Kean who are out there. I'm glad to see them. (Applause.) My
friends. We have a distinguished array of members of the House
from New Jersey -- Hero Klein, Bob Manendez, Frank Pallone,
Donald Payne -- (applause).
But you have some members of the Congress from all
over America here and I want to introduce them, too, because they
have taken a lot of trouble to come to Rutgers and because
without them and without the people who represent you, the
proposal I make today has no hope of passage.
Many members of the Congress for years have believed
we ought to do more in national service and some of them are here
today. I'd like to begin by introducing your Senator Bill
Bradley, who's behind me. (Applause.) I must say, when I walked
into this arena, I turned around and asked Bill Bradley if he'd
ever shot any baskets in here. I'd be intimidated to be the
opposing team in here. (Applause.) Senator Bradley sponsored
legislation to establish neighborhood corps and self-reliance
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scholarships, things that are forbearers of the proposal I came
to make.
I'd like to recognize the presence on the platform
of Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts -- (applause) -- who
chairs the Senate Committee on Human Resources and Education,
which sheparded the pilot national and community service bill
through the Congress in the last session, along with his
counterpart who is out here in the audience somewhere. I'd like
to ask him to stand up. The Chairman of the House Committee,
Congressman Bill Ford, who came all the way from Michigan to be
with us. Congressman, would you stand up. (Applause.)
I'd like to recognize in the audience the presence
of Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut, who was one of the first
Peace Corps volunteers in the United States. (Applause.)
The member of Congress who introduced many, many
years ago, the first piece of national service legislation ever
introduced, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,
Senator Clairborne Pell from Rhode Island is here. (Applause.)
I'd also like to introduce the only person in this
audience, at least of our crowd, who doesn't have to look up to
Senator Bradley, Senator Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia, an
early VISTA volunteer in the United States. (Applause.)
And finally I would like to recognize two other
people, one, a member of the United States Senate and one a
distinguished American citizen, the first boss of the Peace
Corps, Sargent Shriver, who's up here with me. (Applause.) And
his deputy, Senator Harris Wofford, from Pennsylvania.
(Applause.) And Mrs. Wofford, I'm glad to see you. (Applause.)
Now, I was involved before I became President in a
group called the Democratic Leadership Council, and we made one
of the central parts of our platform to reclaim a new majority of
Americans for our party the establishment of a system of national
service to help people to finance education. And one of our
founding members and guiding lights is here, Representative Dave
McCurdy from Oklahoma. I'd like. for him to stand up.
(Applause.)
Let me make this last point, if I might, by way of
beginning. None of these things happen at the national level.
We empower them to happen and then people have to do things here
at the grassroots. And I want to say a special word of thanks to
your Governor for supporting the New Jersey Youth Corps and
several other projects like it around the state, because if
nobody's here to believe in this, it can't happen. And I thank
Governor Florio for his support for these things. (Applause.)
I came here to ask all of you to join me in a great
national adventure, for in the next few weeks I will ask the
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United States Congress to join me in creating a new system of
voluntary national service -- something that I believe in the
next few years will change America forever and for the better.
My parents' generation won new dignity working their
way out of the great Depression through programs that provided
them the opportunity to serve and to survive. Brave men and
women in my own generation waged and won peaceful revolutions,
here at home for civil rights and human rights, and began service
around the world in the Peace Corps and here at home in Vista.
Now, Americans of every generation face profound challenges in
meeting the needs that have been neglected for too long in this
country -- from city streets plagued by crime and drugs to
classrooms where girls and boys must learn the skills they need
for tomorrow, to hospital wards where patients need more care.
All across America we have problems that demand our common
attention.
For those who answer the call and meet these
challenges, I propose that our country honor your service with
new opportunities for education. National service will be
America at its best -- building community, offering opportunity,
and rewarding responsibility. National service is a challenge
for Americans from every background and walk of life, and it
values something far more than money. National service is.
nothing less than the American way to change America.
(Applause.)
It is rooted in the concept of community: the
simple idea that none of us on our own will ever have as much to
cherish about our own lives if we are out here all alone as we
will if we work together. That somehow a society really is an
organism in which the whole can be greater than the sum of its
parts. And every one of us, no matter how many privileges with
which we are born, can still be enriched by the contributions of
the least of us. And that we will never fulfill our individual
capacities until, as Americans, we can all be what God meant for
us to be. (Applause.)
If that is so -- if that is true, my fellow
Americans, and if you believe it, it must therefore follow that
each of us has an obligation to serve. For it is perfectly clear
that all of us cannot be what we ought to be until those of us
who can help others -- and that is nearly all of us -- are doing
something to help others live up to their potential. The concept
of community and the idea of service are as old as our history.
They began the moment America was literally invented.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of
Independence, "With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortune, and our sacred honor." In the midst of the Civil War,
President Lincoln signed into law two visionary programs that
helped our people come together again and build America up. The
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Morrill Act helped states create new land grant colleges. This
is a land grant university. The university in my home state was
the, first land grant college west of the Mississippi River.
In these places, young people learn to make American
agriculture and industry the best in the world. The legacy of
the Morrill Act is not only our great colleges and universities
like Rutgers, but the American tradition that merit and not money
should give people a chance for a higher education. (Applause.)
Mr. Lincoln also signed the Homestead Act that
offered 100 acres of land for families who had the courage to
settle the frontier and farm the wilderness. Its legacy is a
nation that stretches from coast to coast. Now we must create a
new legacy that gives a new generation of Americans the right and
the power to explore the frontiers of science and technology and
space. The frontiers of the limitations of our knowledge must be
pushed back so that we can do what we need to do. And education
is the way to do it, just as surely as it was more than 100 years
ago.
Seven decades after the Civil War in the midst of
the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created the Civilian
Conservation Corps, which gave 2.5 million young people the
opportunity to support themselves while working in disaster
relief and maintaining forests, beaches, rivers, and parks. Its
legacy is not only the restoration of our natural environment,
but the restoration of our national spirit. Along with the Works
Products Administration -- the WPA -- the Civilian Conservation
Corps symbolized government's effort to provide a nation in
depression with the opportunity to work, to build the American
community through service. And all over America today, you can
see projects -- even today in the 1990s -- built by. your parents
or your grandparents with the WPA plaque on it -- the CCC plaque
on it -- the idea that people should be asked to serve and
rewarded for doing it.
In the midst of World War II, President Roosevelt
proposed the GI Bill of Rights, which offered returning veterans
the opportunity for education in respect to their service to our
country in the war. Thanks to the GI Bill, which became a living
reality in President Truman's time, more than eight million
veterans got advanced education. And half a century later, the
enduring legacy of the GI Bill is the strongest economy in the
world and the broadest, biggest middle class that any nation has
ever enjoyed.
For many in my own generation, the summons to
citizenship and service came on this day 32 years ago, when
President Kennedy created the Peace Corps with Sargent Shriver
and Harris Wofford and other dedicated Americans when President
Kennedy created the Peace Corps. With Sargent Shriver and Harris
Wofford and other dedicated Americans, he enabled thousands of
young men and women to serve on the leading edge of the new
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frontier, helping people all over the world to become what they
ought to be, and bringing them the message by their very lives
that America was a great country that stood for good values and
human progress.
At its height, the Peace Corps enrolled 16,000 young
men and women. Its legacy is not simply goodwill and good works
in countries all across the globe, but a profound and lasting
change in the way Americans think about their own country and the
world.
Shortly after the Peace Corps, Congress, under
President Johnson, created the volunteers and service to America.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, whom I introduced a moment ago, and many
thousands of other Americans went to the hills and hollows of
poor places, like West Virginia and Arkansas and Mississippi, to
lift up Americans through their service.
The lesson of our whole history is that honoring
service and rewarding responsibility is the best investment
America can make. And I have seen it today. Across this great
land, through the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, which took the
children who lived in the neighborhoods where the riots occurred
and gave them a chance to get out into nature and to clean up
their own neighborhoods and to lift themselves and their friends
in the effort; in Boston with the City Year program -- with all
these programs represented here in this room today, the spirit of
service is sweeping this country and giving us a chance to put
the quilt of America together in a way that makes a strength out
of diversity; that lifts. us up out of our problems; and that
keeps our people looking toward a better and brighter future.
(Applause.)
National service recognizes a simple but powerful
truth -- that we make progress not by governmental action alone,
but we do best when the people and their government work at the
grassroots in genuine partnership. The idea of national service
permeates many other aspects of the programs I have sought to
bring to America. The economic plan that I announced to
Congress, for example, will offer every child the chance for a
healthy start through immunization and basic health care and Head
Start. (Applause.) But still it depends on parents doing the
best they can as parents and children making the most of their
opportunities.
The plan can help to rebuild our cities and our
small communities through physical investments that will put
people to work. But Americans still must work to restore the
social fabric that has been torn in too many communities. Unless
people know we can work together in our schools and our offices,
in our factories, unless they believe we can walk the streets
safely together, and unless we do that together, governmental
action alone is doomed to fail. (Applause.)
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The national service plan I propose will be built on
the same principles as the old GI Bill -- when people give
something of invaluable merit to their country, they ought to be
rewarded with the opportunity to further their education.
National service will challenge our people to do the work that
should and indeed must be done and cannot be done unless the
American people voluntarily give themselves up to that work. It
will invest in the future of every person who serves.
And as we rekindle the spirit of national service, I
know it won't disappoint many of the students here to know that
we also have to reform the whole system of student loans.
(Applause.) We should begin by making it easier for young people
to pay back their student loans and enabling them to hold jobs --
(applause) -- enabling them to hold jobs that may accomplish
much, but pay little.
Today, when students borrow money for an education,
the repayment plan they make is based largely on how much they
have to repay, without regard to what the jobs they take
themselves pay. It is a powerful incentive, therefore, for young
college graduates to do just the reverse of what we might want
them to do; to take a job that pays more even it is less
rewarding because that is the job that will make the repayment of
the loans possible. It' is also, unfortunately, a powerful
incentive for some not to make the payments at all, which is
unforgivable.
So what we seek to do is to enable the American
students to borrow the money they need for college and pay it
back as a small percentage of their own income over time. This
is especially important after a decade in which the cost of a
college education has gone up even more rapidly than the cost of
health care. (Applause.) Making a major contribution to one of
the more disturbing statistics in America today, which is that
the college dropout rate in this country is now 2.5 times the
high school dropout rate. We can do better than that through
national service and adequate financing. (Applause.)
The present system is unacceptable, not only for
students, but for the taxpayers as well. It's complicated and
it's expensive. It costs the taxpayers of our country about $4
billion every year to finance the student loan program because of
loan defaults and the cost of administering the program. And I
believe we can do better.
Beyond reforming this system for financing higher
education, the national service program more importantly will
create new opportunities for Americans to work off outstanding
loans or to build up credits for future education and training
opportunities.
We'll ask young people all across this country and
some who aren't so young who want to further their college
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education to serve in our schools as teachers or tutors in
reading and mathematics. We'll ask you to help our police forces
across the nation, training members for a new police corps that
will walk beats and work with neighborhoods and build the kind of
communities ties that will prevent crime from happening in the
first place so that our police officers won't have to spend all
their time chasing criminals. (Applause.)
We'll ask young people to work; to help control
pollution and recycle waste, to paint darkened buildings and
clean up neighbor noods. (Applause.) To work with senior
citizens and combat homelessness and help children in trouble get
out of it and build a better life. (Applause.)
And these are just a few of the things that you will
be able to, for most of the decisions about what you can do will
be made by people like those in this room, people who run the
programs represented by all of those wearing these different
kinds of tee-shirts. We don't seek a national bureaucracy. I
have spoken often about how we need to reinvent the government to
make it more efficient and less bureaucratic, to make it more
responsive to people at the grassroots level.
And I want national service to do just that. I want
it to empower young people and their communities, not to empower
yet another government bureaucracy in Washington. This is going
to be your program at your level with your people. (Applause.)
And as you well know, that's what's happening all
across America today. People are already serving their neighbors
in their neighborhoods. Just this morning, I was inspired to see
and to speak with students from Rutgers serving their community,
from mentoring young people as Big Sisters, to helping older
people learn new skills.
I met a lady today who has 13 grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren who dropped out of school the year before I
was born -- is about to become a high school graduate shortly
because of the efforts of this program. (Applause.) Is she back
there? Stand up. (Applause.)
I'm impressed by the spirit behind the Rutgers civic
education and community service program: the understanding that
community service. enriches education, that students should not
only take the lessons they learn in class out into the community,
but bring the lessons they learn in the community back into the
classroom. (Applause.)
And that spirit, during this academic year alone,
more than 800 students from Rutgers are contributing more than
60,000 hours of community service -- in New Brunswick, in Camden,
in Newark, throughout this state. (Applause.)
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This morning I also met with members of the New
Jersey Youth Corps. Here they are. (Applause.) Stand up.
(Applause.) Young people who are looking for a second chance at
7,
school, and who when coming back to finish their high school
degrees, also serve in their communities. Through this program,
more than 6,500 young adults have contributed over 900,000 hours
of service to the state of New Jersey. (Applause.)
They've done everything from paint senior citizens'
homes, to tutor and mentor children in after-school programs.
For the future of our state and nation, we need more young people
like those in the New Jersey Youth Corps who exemplify the spirit
of service.
That spirit also moves people all across the nation.
In my state, there's a young woman named Antoinette Jackson,
who's a senior in a small community called Gauld, Arkansas.
She's a member of the Delta Service Corps. The rural Mississippi
Delta is still the poorest place in America. And in that area,
she works with a "Lend a Hand" program which runs a thrift shop
to provide hungry and homeless people with food and clothing.
And in return, the Delta Four is going to help her attend college
so that she can make an even greater contribution. (Applause.)
The spirit of service also moves a young man I met
about a year ago named Stephen Spalos, who works with a City Year
program in Boston. At age 23, he's had some hard times in his
life. But as he puts it, City Year gave him a place and the
tools to be able to start over. He works as a team leader, a
mentor, a tutor, a project manager for a bunch of young people
who restore senior citizens' homes.
Last year when I visited his project, he literally
took his sweatshirt off his back and gave it to me so that I
would never forget the kids at City Year. And I still wear it
when I go jogging, always remembering what they're doing in
Boston to help those kids. (Applause.)
The spirit of service moves Orah Fireman, a graduate
of Wesleyan College. As a sophomore in high school, she worked
with disadvantaged children in upstate New York. That experience
changed her life. And during her high school and college years,
she continued to work with children. And now that she is out of
college, she has begun what will probably be a lifetime of
service by working at a school for emotionally disturbed children
in Boston. She wants other people to have the opportunity to
serve, and she wrote this: Service work teaches responsibility
and compassion. It fights alienation by proving to young people
that they can make a difference. There is no lesson more
important than that.
Well, there are stories like this in this room and
all across America. And we're going to create thousands of more
of them through national service. We'll work with groups with
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proven track records to serve their community, giving them the
support they need. And if you have more good ideas, if you're
entrepreneurs of national service, we'll let you compete for our
form of venture capital -- develop new programs to serve your
neighbors. That's how we want the national service program to
grow every year -- rewarding results, building on success, and
bubbling up from the grassroots energy and compassion and
intellect of America.
I don't want service to wait while this potential is
wasted. That's why I want to make this summer a summer of
service, when young people can not only serve their communities,
but build a foundation for a new national effort. I've asked
Congress to invest in and I'm asking young people to participate
in a special effort in national service and leadership training
just this summer. We are going to recruit about 1,000 young
people from every background -- from high school dropouts to
college graduates, to send to an intensive leadership training
program for national service at the beginning of the summer.
Then we'll ask them to work on one of our country's
most urgent problems, helping our children who are in danger of
losing their God-given potential. Some of them will tutor. Some
will work on programs to immunize young children from preventible
childhood diseases. Some will help to develop and run
recreational centers or reclaim urban parks from dealers and
debris. Some will counsel people a few years younger than
themselves to keep them out of gangs and into good activities.
And everyone will learn about serving our country and helping our
communities.
At the end of this summer, we'll bring all these
people together for several days of debriefing and training, and
then they' all join in a youth service summit. I will attend
the meeting and I expect to listen a lot more than I talk. I'll
ask leaders from Congress, from business, labor, religious, and
community groups to attend the youth service summit, too. We'll
give those who serve the honor they deserve, and we'll learn a
lot more about how to build this national service program. And
from the thousand pioneers of this summer, I want the national
service to grow 100-fold in the next four years. (Applause.)
But even when hundreds of thousands are serving, I
want to maintain the pioneer spirit of this first few months,
because national service can make America new again. It can help
solve our problems, educate our people, and build our communities
back together. So if anybody here would like to be one of those
1,000 -- or if anybody who is listening to this speech by radio
or television or reads about it and would like to be one of those
1,000, drop me a card at the White House and just mark it
national service. We're going to pick them. And I can't promise
you'll be selected, but I promise you'll be considered. I want
to engage the energies of America in this effort. (Applause.)
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I also want to say that you shouldn't wait for the
summer or for a new program. We need to begin now. We are going
to be looking for the kinds of ideas that we ought to be funding.
This is Monday. I ask you by Friday -- every one of you -- to
think about what you think you can do and what we should do to be
agents of renewal; to talk with your parents, your clergy, your
friends, your teachers, to join the effort to renew our community
and to rebuild our country; and to write to me about what you are
doing. It's time for millions of us to change our country block
by block, neighborhood by neighborhood -- time to return to our
roots an excitement, an idealism, and an energy. (Applause.)
I have to tell you that there are some among us who
do not believe that young Americans will answer a call to action,
who believe that our people now measure their success merely in
the accumulation of material things. They believe this call to
service will go unanswered. But I believe they are dead wrong.
(Applause.)
And so, especially to the young Americans here, I
ask you to prove that those who doubt you are wrong about your
generation. And today I ask all of you who are young in spirit
-- whether you are a 10-year-old in a service program in our
schools who reads to still younger children, or a 72-year-old who
has become a foster grandparent -- I ask you all to believe that
you can contribute to your community and your country. And in so
doing, you will find the best in yourself.
You will learn the lessons about your life that you
might not ever learn any other way. You will learn again that
each of us has the spark of potential to accomplish something
truly and enduringly unique. You will experience the
satisfaction of making a connection in a way with another person
that you could do in no other way. You will learn that the joy
of mastering a new skill or discovering a new insight is exceeded
only by the joy of helping someone else do the same thing. You
will know the satisfaction of being valued not for what you own
or what you earn or what position you hold, but just because of
what you have given to someone else. (Applause.) You will
understand in personal ways the wisdom of the words spoken years
ago by Martin Luther King who said "Everybody can be great
because everybody can serve." (Applause.)
I ask you all, my fellow Americans, to support our
proposal for national service and to live a proposal for national
service; to learn the meaning of America at its best, and to
recreate for others America at its best. We are not just another
country. We have always been a special kind of community, linked
by a web of rights and responsibilities, and bound together, not
by bloodlines, but by beliefs. At an age in time when people all
across the world are being literally torn apart by racial
hatreds, by ethnic hatreds, by religious divisions, we are a
nation, with all of our problems, where people can come together
across racial and religious lines and hold hands and work
together, not just to endure our differences, but to celebrate
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them. I ask you to make America celebrate that again.
(Applause.)
I ask you, in closing, to commit yourselves to this
season of service because America needs it. We need every one of
you to live up to the fullest of your potential, and we need you
to reach those who are not here and who will never hear this
talk, and who will never have the future they could otherwise
have if not for something that you could do. The great challenge
of your generation is to prove that every person here in this
great land can live up to the fullest of their God-given
capacity. If we do it, the 21st century will be the American
century. The American Dream will be kept alive if you will today
answer the call to service.
Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)
END
1:50 P.M. EST
INFORMATION ON THE PRESIDENT'S "SUMMER OF SERVICE" PROJECT:
o
Project Overview: with national service a high priority for
the President, he will be organizing a summer project even as his
proposed legislation will be making its way through Congress.
The project will focus on 4 to 10 communities around the country,
involving a diverse group of more than 1,000 young people
involved in special efforts to help children at risk.
O
Funding: The project will be funded with a portion of a $15
million appropriation in the FY 93 stimulus package. (Additional
challenge-grant funding for service corps; for expanding teacher
training in service learning; and for re-establishing VISTA's
Summer Associates program are also included in the package.)
O
Objectives: The proot im 'ias two major joals: To show what
nat.onal service can accomplish, meeting critical needs and
bringing people together; and to develop a leadership corps for
future years of national service. National service is such a
priority of the President, he wouldn't let it wait for the full
program to pass Congress.
o
Targeted Needs: The programs in the "Summer of Service"
will focus on children-at-risk in the areas of education, health,
crime prevention, and environmental protection. For example, some
participants will tutor; some will help bring families into
medical clinics; some will develop recreational centers; some
will counsel youths to keep them out of gangs.
O
Leadership Training: The summer project will be designed to
develop the leadership skills of the young participants. For
several days at the beginning and end of the summer, the
participants will gather to share their experiences and complete
intensive leadership training.
o
Post-program/Ongoing Benefits: All participants interested
in continuing to serve through the next year will receive
placement assistance. Participants with ideas to design their own
programs to fight community problems will be able to receive
modest Service Entrepreneurial Awards for Change (SEA Change) to
realize their plans.
O
Administration: The Commission on National and Community
Service will administer a competitive process to determine what
programs participate. The programs will select the participants.
The Commission is working quickly to ensure that programs are
developed rapidly and effectively to succeed for this summer.
INFORMATION ON THE PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE:
o
Timing: The President will submit legislation for his
national service program to Congress this spring.
o
Two Components of the Program: The President's program will
have two primary components: 1) The program will create national
service opportunities for young people to serve their country and
receive money for college or training in return; 2) The program
will enable all young people to go to college or receive training
to pay back their student loans as a small percentage of their
income over time ("income contingent" loans) -- enabling them to
hold essential public service jobs that accomplish much but
sometimes pay relatively little.
Detail. C. The First Component:
O
Funding: The President has requested $7.4 billion over the
next four years for his national service program. The funding
level will rise each year, to $3.4 billion in 1997. Funding
starts at $400 million for the first year.
O
Number of Participants: The number of participants for the
first year is estimated at 25,000. By 1997, it is expected that
more than 100,000 young people will be paying for their education
or training by serving their country and communities.
o
Eligibility and Benefits: Students before, during and after
college will be eligible to serve for a year or two, and in
réturn receive a small stipend, health and child care benefits
where necessary, and an educational benefit to pay for college or
job training (or discharge loans incurred for those purposes).
O
Focus of Service Activities: The program objectives will be
to meet unmet needs in critical areas. For example, young people
will be able to serve as teachers in schools where children need
extra help; in clinics in areas where people need medical care;
in the police force, keeping criminals off the streets and kids
out of gangs; and in an environmental corps, recycling waste and
fighting pollution.
O
Administration: The program will be non-bureaucratic, using
venture capital to support entrepreneurs and public-private
partnerships to support growing programs. States and local
organizations will be given the opportunity to design innovative
ways to meet identified national priorities.
O
Nondisplacement: The legislation will include strict
nondisplacement and nonduplication provisions. National service
will only meet needs that are not otherwise being met.
National Service — Now
By Bill Clinton
lenge is great We must combine the
would be self-defeating: it would
intensity of the post-World War II
squash the spirit of Innovation that
years with the Idealism of the early
national service demands.
WASHINGTON
1960's - and help young people afford
By design, our national service pro-
a college education or job training.
gram will not happen overnight. In-
A pathy is dead
Of everything I've
In 1993, we'll restore the spirit of
stead, it will grow year by year, with
learned in my first
service by asking our people to serve
funding reaching $3 billion ID 1997.
few weeks in the
here at home. We won't refight the
And as I've said many times, I be
White House. that's
wars we won, but we'll Lackle the
lieve It will be the best money we ever
the thing that's made
growing domestic dangers that
spend
me the happiest. Whether or not the
threaten our future.
If Congress gives us the chance.
people I've met outside the capital
Our new initiative will embody the
this summer we'll create an eight.
support the changes I have proposed.
same principles as the old G.I. BUL It
week leadership training program.
they're all saying they're ready to
will challenge our people to serve our
We'll recruit more than 1,000 young
rebuild our country.
country and do the work that should
people for special projects to meet
But they know. as I do, that no
- and must - be done. It will give
the needs of children at risk - and to
economic plan can do n alone. A plan
those who serve the honor and re-
train the first class of full-year par-
can make vaccines available to chil-
wards they deserve. It will invest in
ticipants.
dren, but alone it will not administer
the future of the quiet heroes who
In the first full year of our initiative,
the shols to all of them. It can put
invest in the future of others.
we'll launch our flexible loan program
security guards in the schools, but
The national service legislation
and aim to put tens of thousands of
alone it will not take gangs off the
that I will send to Congress shortly
people to work. By 1997. more than
streets. And It can provide more aid
will give our people the chance to
100,000 citizens could be serving our
for college, but alone it will not make
serve in two basic ways:
country, getting education and train-
the costs of college less daunting for
First, it will make it easier for
ing benefits in return. And hundreds
the middle class.
young people to hold low-paying pub-
of thousands more people could be
That's why I believe we need na-
IIc service jobs and still pay off their
doing invaluable work because col-
tional rvice now.
student loans.
lege loans no longer block the way.
If Cangress acts quickly enough just
Under our program. Americans
But the best planning and the most
months from now more than 1,000
will be able to borrow the money they
ambitious design won't make this V1-
young people will start serving our
need for college and pay it back as a
sion of national service a reality. That
country in a special summer effort In
small percentage of their income
responsibility ultimately rests with
four years, the successors to these
over time. By giving graduates the
the American people.
pioneers will multiply a hundredfold.
chance to repay loans on an afford.
I am convinced that after 12 years
Imagine: an army of 100,000 young
able, reasonable schedule, this "in-
of drifting apart instead of working
people restoring urban and rural com-
come-contingent" program will allow
together we are ready to meet the
munities and giving their labor b re-
our people to do the work that our
challenge. From a 14-year-old boy in
turn for education and training
communities really need.
North Dakota who sent us $1,000 to
National service is an idea as old as
Second. our legislation will create
help pay off the deficit, to a 92-year-
America. Time and again, our people
new opportunities for Americans to
old widower in Kansas who followed
have found new ways to honor citizen-
serve our country for a year or two -
his example, people are demonstrat.
ship and match the needs of changing
and receive financial support for edu-
ing that they want to give something
times.
back to their nation.
cation or training in return
Lincoln's Homestead Act rewarded
National service will exercise our
We'll offer people of different ages
those who had the courage to setue the
talents and rebuild our communities.
and educational levels different ways
frontier with the land to raise a family.
to serve. And to focus our energies and
It will harness the energy of our
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Social Secun-
youth and attack the problems of our
get the most for our money. we'll direct
ty Act insured that Aroericans who
time. It will bring together men and
special attention to a few areas:
work a lifetime can grow old with
women of every age and race and lift
. We'll ask thousands of young peo-
digruty. Harry S. Trumao's G.I. BUI
up our nation's spirit And for all of
ple to serve in our schools - some as
rewarded the service of my father's
us, It will rekindle the excitement of
teachers. others as youth mentors,
generation, transforming youthful ver-
being Americans
reading specialists and math tutors
erans into an army of educated civil-
They'll join the effort to insure that
Lans that led our nation into a Dew era.
our schools offer the best education in
For my generation, the reality of
the world
national service was born 32 years
We'll send people into medical
ago Lomorrow, when President John
clinics to help Immunize the nation's
F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps
At its peak, the Peace Corps enrolled
2-year-olds. Some participants will be
only 16,000 volunteers yet n changed
qualified to give the show, but thou
the way a generation of Americans
sands of others can provide essential
look at themselves and the world
support, contacting parents and
Today, the spirit of our people once
following up to make sure children
again can meet head-on the troubles
get the shows they need
of our times
We'll help police forces across the
The Lask is as complex as our chat
country through a new Police Corps
trained to walk beats We'll also or-
President Clinton will deliver a
ganize others tn our communities to
speech on national service tomorrow
keep kids out of gangs and off drugs
at Rulgers University.
We'll put still others to work con-
trolling pollution and recycling waste,
to help insure that we pass on to our
children a nation that is clean and
safe for years to come
Our national service program will
offer more than benefits to individ-
uais. We'll help pay operating costs
for community groups with proved
track records, providing the support
they'll need to grow. And we'll let
entrepreneurs compete for venture
capital to develop new service pro-
grams.
While the Federal Government will
provide the seed money for national
service, we are determined that the
participants - the individuals who
serve and the groups that sponsor
their service will guide the process
Spending tens of millions of tax dol-
lars to build a massive bureaucracy
Clinton National Service Proposal
Discussion Outline
The President's call to service extends from the youngest
elementary students to our oldest citizens, and includes
everything from part-time volunteer activities to full-time
public service jobs. Toward this end, the President supports
funding for service programs involving school-age youth and
senior citizens, as well as professional corps programs such as
the Police Corps and Teacher Corps designed to attract top
candidates to public service jobs. These issues, however, are not
considered in this outline.
The centerpiece of the President's proposal is a national
service program that will make it possible for college graduates
and others to perform needed services in their communities by
making it easier to pay back their student loans. All students
will have the option of repaying their loans with a small
percentage of their income over time, removing a significant
obstacle to low-paying careers in public service. Some will have
the opportunity to serve in national service positions in the
areas of education, human services, environment, and public
safety. This program is outlined below.
A. National Service Positions
Types of Placements: States and the federal government may
approve full-time or part-time placements in youth corps,
specialized service corps, individual placements in non-profit
organizations (through VISTA or nonfederal programs), and college
service programs, with an emphasis on placements addressing
national priority needs. A limited number of public service
entrepreneurs would also be selected for participation. National
Service positions may not displace paid workers.
Selection of Participants: A diverse group of recent
college graduates, as well as college students, college-bound
high-school graduates, and non-college bound youth, will be
selected for participation by applying to and being accepted into
a program offering approved national service positions. A
national system to help match individuals with programs will be
established.
Benefits: The program will support a minimum-wage stipend
and health and child care benefits (if needed). Individuals
serving after college would receive student loan forgiveness
worth $10,000 for each of two years of service, or the amount of
their outstanding loans, whichever is less. Other participants
would receive a post-service benefit of $5,000 for each of two
years of service, useable for higher education or employment
training.
Building an Infrastructure: Funding will be available for
three types of grants: single-year venture capital grants may be
made to individuals, states, and public or private non-profit
organizations (including education institutions) for program
start-up; states and public or private non-profit organizations
operating programs may receive multi-year grants for program
costs; and states and public or private non-profit organizations
may receive grants to replicate proven existing programs.
Leveraging Nonfederal Funding: All grants will be made on a
challenge basis and must be matched. This requirement may be
waived in special circumstances.
Federal role: The federal government will establish
criteria for approved national service positions and programs,
allocate program resources, ensure against fraud and abuse,
arrange for a national training program, coordinate service
programs within the federal government, arrange for evaluation of
funded programs, and provide training and technical assistance to
states and programs.
State role: The governor of each state may designate a lead
agency and appoint a State National Service Commission
responsible for overseeing national service programs in the
state. The State Commission will include representatives of
local service program directors and other citizens and will
develop a plan for service, including proposed national service
placements in the state. The plan must ensure equitable
treatment of urban and rural areas within the state and be
approved by the governor and the national service agency.
Phase-in: Participation is expected to reach at least
25,000 by the end of fiscal year 1994, increasing to at least
100,000 in 1997.
B.
Income Contingent Loan Repayment
All borrowers will be able to repay their loans through
income contingent repayments. This means that borrowers with
higher incomes would repay more quickly, while lower-income
borrowers would repay over a longer period of time. Student debt
will not prevent borrowers from choosing lower-paying jobs for
fear that they will not be able to repay their debt.
years of service, useable for higher education or employment
training.
Building an Infrastructure: Funding will be available for
three types of grants: single-year venture capital grants may be
made to individuals, states, and public or private non-profit
organizations (including education institutions) for program
start-up; states and public or private non-profit organizations
operating programs may receive multi-year grants for program
costs; and states and public or private non-profit organizations
may receive grants to replicate proven existing programs.
Leveraging Nonfederal Funding: All grants will be made on a
challenge basis and must be matched. This requirement may be
waived in special circumstances.
Federal role: The federal government will establish
criteria for approved national service positions and programs,
allocate program resources, ensure against fraud and abuse,
arrange for a national training program, coordinate service
programs within the federal government, arrange for evaluation of
funded programs, and provide training and technical assistance to
states and programs.
State role: The governor of each state may designate a lead
agency and appoint a State National Service Commission
responsible for overseeing national service programs in the
state. The State Commission will include representatives of
local service program directors and other citizens and will
develop a plan for service, including proposed national service
placements in the state. The plan must ensure equitable
treatment of urban and rural areas within the state and be
approved by the governor and the national service agency.
Phase-in: Participation is expected to reach at least
25,000 by the end of fiscal year 1994, increasing to at least
100,000 in 1997.
B. Income Contingent Loan Repayment
All borrowers will be able to repay their loans through
income contingent repayments. This means that borrowers with
higher incomes would repay more quickly, while lower-income
borrowers would repay over a longer period of time. Student debt
will not prevent borrowers from choosing lower-paying jobs for
fear that they will not be able to repay their debt.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New Brunswick, New Jersey)
For Immediate Release
March 1, 1993
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN NATIONAL SERVICE ADDRESS
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
1:15 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Thank you. Thank you, Nakia Tomlinson for that fine
introduction. I wish I could take you with me everywhere. We'd
make a great duo there. Let's give her another hand. I thought
she was great. (Applause.)
I'd like to thank President Frank Lawrence for his -
Francis Lawrence -- for his fine speech. Does anybody call him
Frank? I should have asked. (Laughter.) I want to compliment
Professor Benjamin Barber for his leadership and service here.
(Applause.) And I want to thank all of you here in the Rutgers
community for coming out for what I hope will be a truly historic
moment in our nation's history. (Applause.)
In addition to the people who have been introduced
here, there are a host of mayors and members of the Assembly and
county officials here from your state. We have two former
governors, both of whom I served with -- Brendan Byrne and Tom
Kean who are out there. I'm glad to see them. (Applause.) My
friends. We have a distinguished array of members of the House
from New Jersey -- Hero Klein, Bob Manendez, Frank Pallone,
Donald Payne -- (applause).
But you have some members of the Congress from all
over America here and I want to introduce them, too, because they
have taken a lot of trouble to come to Rutgers and because
without them and without the people who represent you, the
proposal I make today has no hope of passage.
Many members of the Congress for years have believed
we ought to do more in national service and some of them are here
today. I'd like to begin by introducing your Senator Bill
Bradley, who's behind me. (Applause.) I must say, when I walked
into this arena, I turned around and asked Bill Bradley if he'd
ever shot any baskets in here. I'd be intimidated to be the
opposing team in here. (Applause.) Senator Bradley sponsored
legislation to establish neighborhood corps and self-reliance
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- 2 -
scholarships, things that are forbearers of the proposal I came
to make.
I'd like to recognize the presence on the platform
of Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts -- (applause) -- who
chairs the Senate Committee on Human Resources and Education,
which sheparded the pilot national and community service bill
through the Congress in the last session, along with his
counterpart who is out here in the audience somewhere. I'd like
to ask him to stand up. The Chairman of the House Committee,
Congressman Bill Ford, who came all the way from Michigan to be
with us. Congressman, would you stand up. (Applause.)
I'd like to recognize in the audience the presence
of Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut, who was one of the first
Peace Corps volunteers in the United States. (Applause.)
The member of Congress who introduced many, many
years ago, the first piece of national service legislation ever
introduced, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,
Senator Clairborne Pell from Rhode Island is here. (Applause.)
I'd also like to introduce the only person in this
audience, at least of our crowd, who doesn't have to look up to
Senator Bradley, Senator Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia, an
early VISTA volunteer in the United States. (Applause.)
And finally I would like to recognize two other
people, one, a member of the United States Senate and one a
distinguished American citizen, the first boss of the Peace
Corps, Sargent Shriver, who's up here with me. (Applause.) And
his deputy, Senator Harris Wofford, from Pennsylvania.
(Applause.) And Mrs. Wofford, I'm glad to see you. (Applause.)
Now, I was involved before I became President in a
group called the Democratic Leadership Council, and we made one
of the central parts of our platform to reclaim a new majority of
Americans for our party the establishment of a system of national
service to help people to finance education. And one of our
founding members and guiding lights is here, Representative Dave
McCurdy from Oklahoma. I'd like for him to stand up.
(Applause.)
Let me make this last point, if I might, by way of
beginning. None of these things happen at the national level.
We empower them to happen and then people have to do things here
at the grassroots. And I want to say a special word of thanks to
your Governor for supporting the New Jersey Youth Corps and
several other projects like it around the state, because if
nobody's here to believe in this, it can't happen. And I thank
Governor Florio for his support for these things. (Applause.)
I came here to ask all of you to join me in a great
national adventure, for in the next few weeks I will ask the
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- 3 -
United States Congress to join me in creating a new system of
voluntary national service -- something that I believe in the
next few years will change America forever and for the better.
My parents' generation won new dignity working their
way out of the great Depression through programs that provided
them the opportunity to serve and to survive. Brave men and
women in my own generation waged and won peaceful revolutions
here at home for civil rights and human rights, and began service
around the world in the Peace Corps and here at home in Vista.
Now, Americans of every generation face profound challenges in
meeting the needs that have been neglected for too long in this
country -- from city streets plagued by crime and drugs to
classrooms where girls and boys must learn the skills they need
for tomorrow, to hospital wards where patients need more care.
All across America we have problems that demand our common
attention.
For those who answer the call and meet these
challenges, I propose that our country honor your service with
new opportunities for education. National service will be
America at its best -- building community, offering opportunity,
and rewarding responsibility. National service is a challenge
for Americans from every background and walk of life, and it
values something far more than money. National service is
nothing less than the American way to change America.
(Applause.)
It is rooted in the concept of community: the
simple idea that none of us on our own will ever have as much to
cherish about our own lives if we are out here all alone as we
will if we work together. That somehow a society really is an
organism in which the whole can be greater than the sum of its
parts. And every one of us, no matter how many privileges with
which we are born, can still be enriched by the contributions of
the least of us. And that we will never fulfill our individual
capacities until, as Americans, we can all be what God meant for
us to be. (Applause.)
If that is so -- if that is true, my fellow
Americans, and if you believe it, it must therefore follow that
each of us has an obligation to serve. For it is perfectly clear
that all of us cannot be what we ought to be until those of us
who can help others -- and that is nearly all of us -- are doing
something to help others live up to their potential. The concept
of community and the idea of service are as old as our history.
They began the moment America was literally invented.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of
Independence, "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortune, and our sacred honor." In the midst of the Civil War,
President Lincoln signed into law two visionary programs that
helped our people come together again and build America up. The
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Morrill Act helped states create new land grant colleges. This
is a land grant university. The university in my home state was
the first land grant college west of the Mississippi River.
In these places, young people learn to make American
agriculture and industry the best in the world. The legacy of
the Morrill Act is not only our great colleges and universities
like Rutgers, but the American tradition that merit and not money
should give people a chance for a higher education. (Applause.)
Mr. Lincoln also signed the Homestead Act that
offered 100 acres of land for families who had the courage to
settle the frontier and farm the wilderness. Its legacy is a
nation that stretches from coast to coast. Now we must create a
new legacy that gives a new generation of Americans the right and
the power to explore the frontiers of science and technology and
space. The frontiers of the limitations of our knowledge must be
pushed back SO that we can do what we need to do. And education
is the way to do it, just as surely as it was more than 100 years
ago.
Seven decades after the Civil War in the midst of
the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created the Civilian
Conservation Corps, which gave 2.5 million young people the
opportunity to support themselves while working in disaster
relief and maintaining forests, beaches, rivers, and parks. Its
legacy is not only the restoration of our natural environment,
but the restoration of our national spirit. Along with the Works
Products Administration -- the WPA -- the Civilian Conservation
Corps symbolized government's effort to provide a nation in
depression with the opportunity to work, to build the American
community through service. And all over America today, you can
see projects -- even today in the 1990s -- built by your parents
or your grandparents with the WPA plaque on it -- the CCC plaque
on it -- the idea that people should be asked to serve and
rewarded for doing it.
In the midst of World War II, President Roosevelt
proposed the GI Bill of Rights, which offered returning veterans
the opportunity for education in respect to their service to our
country in the war. Thanks to the GI Bill, which became a living
reality in President Truman's time, more than eight million
veterans got advanced education. And half a century later, the
enduring legacy of the GI Bill is the strongest economy in the
world and the broadest, biggest middle class that any nation has
ever enjoyed.
For many in my own generation, the summons to
citizenship and service came on this day 32 years ago, when
President Kennedy created the Peace Corps with Sargent Shriver
and Harris Wofford and other dedicated Americans when President
Kennedy created the Peace Corps. With Sargent Shriver and Harris
Wofford and other dedicated Americans, he enabled thousands of
young men and women to serve on the leading edge of the new
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frontier, helping people all over the world to become what they
ought to be, and bringing them the message by their very lives
that America was a great country that stood for good values and
human progress.
At its height, the Peace Corps enrolled 16,000 young
men and women. Its legacy is not simply goodwill and good works
in countries all across the globe, but a profound and lasting
change in the way Americans think about their own country and the
world.
Shortly after the Peace Corps, Congress, under
President Johnson, created the volunteers and service to America.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, whom I introduced a moment ago, and many
thousands of other Americans went to the hills and hollows of
poor places, like West Virginia and Arkansas and Mississippi, to
lift up Americans through their service.
The lesson of our whole history is that honoring
service and rewarding responsibility is the best investment
America can make. And I have seen it today. Across this great
land, through the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, which took the
children who lived in the neighborhoods where the riots occurred
and gave them a chance to get out into nature and to clean up
their own neighborhoods and to lift themselves and their friends
in the effort; in Boston with the City Year program -- with all
these programs represented here in this room today, the spirit of
service is sweeping this country and giving us a chance to put
the quilt of America together in a way that makes a strength out
of diversity; that lifts us up out of our problems; and that
keeps our people looking toward a better and brighter future.
(Applause.)
National service recognizes a simple but powerful
truth -- that we make progress not by governmental action alone,
but we do best when the people and their government work at the
grassroots in genuine partnership. The idea of national service
permeates many other aspects of the programs I have sought to
bring to America. The economic plan that I announced to
Congress, for example, will offer every child the chance for a
healthy start through immunization and basic health care and Head
Start. (Applause.) But still it depends on parents doing the
best they can as parents and children making the most of their
opportunities.
The plan can help to rebuild our cities and our
small communities through physical investments that will put
people to work. But Americans still must work to restore the
social fabric that has been torn in too many communities. Unless
people know we can work together in our schools and our offices,
in our factories, unless they believe we can walk the streets
safely together, and unless we do that together, governmental
action alone is doomed to fail. (Applause.)
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The national service plan I propose will be built on
the same principles as the old GI Bill -- when people give
something of invaluable merit to their country, they ought to be
rewarded with the opportunity to further their education.
National service will challenge our people to do the work that
should and indeed must be done and cannot be done unless the
American people voluntarily give themselves up to that work. It
will invest in the future of every person who serves.
And as we rekindle the spirit of national service, I
know it won't disappoint many of the students here to know that
we also have to reform the whole system of student loans.
(Applause.) We should begin by making it easier for young people
to pay back their student loans and enabling them to hold jobs --
(applause) -- enabling them to hold jobs that may accomplish
much, but pay little.
Today, when students borrow money for an education,
the repayment plan they make is based largely on how much they
have to repay, without regard to what the jobs they take
themselves pay. It is a powerful incentive, therefore, for young
college graduates to do just the reverse of what we might want
them to do; to take a job that pays more even it is less
rewarding because that is the job that will make the repayment of
the loans possible. It is also, unfortunately, a powerful
incentive for some not to make the payments at all, which is
unforgivable.
So what we seek to do is to enable the American
students to borrow the money they need for college and pay it
back as a small percentage of their own income over time. This
is especially important after a decade in which the cost of a
college education has gone up even more rapidly than the cost of
health care. (Applause.) Making a major contribution to one of
the more disturbing statistics in America today, which is that
the college dropout rate in this country is now 2.5 times the
high school dropout rate. We can do better than that through
national service and adequate financing. (Applause.)
The present system is unacceptable, not only for
students, but for the taxpayers as well. It's complicated and
it's expensive. It costs the taxpayers of our country about $4
billion every year to finance the student loan program because of
loan defaults and the cost of administering the program. And I
believe we can do better.
Beyond reforming this system for financing higher
education, the national service program more importantly will
create new opportunities for Americans to work off outstanding
loans or to build up credits for future education and training
opportunities.
We'll ask young people all across this country and
some who aren't so young who want to further their college
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- 7 -
education to serve in our schools as teachers or tutors in
reading and mathematics. We'll ask you to help our police forces
across the nation, training members for a new police corps that
will walk beats and work with neighborhoods and build the kind of
communities ties that will prevent crime from happening in the
first place so that our police officers won't have to spend all
their time chasing criminals. (Applause.)
We'll ask young people to work, to help control
pollution and recycle waste, to paint darkened buildings and
clean up neighborhoods. (Applause.) To work with senior
citizens and combat homelessness and help children in trouble get
out of it and build a better life. (Applause.)
And these are just a few of the things that you will
be able to, for most of the decisions about what you can do will
be made by people like those in this room, people who run the
programs represented by all of those wearing these different
kinds of tee-shirts. We don't seek a national bureaucracy. I
have spoken often about how we need to reinvent the government to
make it more efficient and less bureaucratic, to make it more
responsive to people at the grassroots level.
And I want national service to do just that. I want
it to empower young people and their communities, not to empower
yet another government bureaucracy in Washington. This is going
to be your program at your level with your people. (Applause.)
And as you well know, that's what's happening all
across America today. People are already serving their neighbors
in their neighborhoods. Just this morning, I was inspired to see
and to speak with students from Rutgers serving their community,
from mentoring young people as Big Sisters, to helping older
people learn new skills.
I met a lady today who has 13 grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren who dropped out of school the year before I
was born -- is about to become a high school graduate shortly
because of the efforts of this program. (Applause.) Is she back
there? Stand up. (Applause.)
I'm impressed by the spirit behind the Rutgers civic
education and community service program: the understanding that
community service enriches education, that students should not
only take the lessons they learn in class out into the community,
but bring the lessons they learn in the community back into the
classroom. (Applause.)
And that spirit, during this academic year alone,
more than 800 students from Rutgers are contributing more than
60,000 hours of community service -- in New Brunswick, in Camden,
in Newark, throughout this state. (Applause.)
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- 8 -
This morning I also met with members of the New
Jersey Youth Corps. Here they are. (Applause.) Stand up.
(Applause.) Young people who are looking for a second chance at
school, and who when coming back to finish their high school
degrees, also serve in their communities. Through this program,
more than 6,500 young adults have contributed over 900,000 hours
of service to the state of New Jersey. (Applause.)
They've done everything from paint senior citizens'
homes, to tutor and mentor children in after-school programs.
For the future of our state and nation, we need more young people
like those in the New Jersey Youth Corps who exemplify the spirit
of service.
That spirit also moves people all across the nation.
In my state, there's a young woman named Antoinette Jackson,
who's a senior in a small community called Gauld, Arkansas.
She's a member of the Delta Service Corps. The rural Mississippi
Delta is still the poorest place in America. And in that area,
she works with a "Lend a Hand" program which runs a thrift shop
to provide hungry and homeless people with food and clothing.
And in return, the Delta Four is going to help her attend college
so that she can make an even greater contribution. (Applause.)
The spirit of service also moves a young man I met
about a year ago named Stephen Spalos, who works with a City Year
program in Boston. At age 23, he's had some hard times in his
life. But as he puts it, City Year gave him a place and the
tools to be able to start over. He works as a team leader, a
mentor, a tutor, a project manager for a bunch of young people
who restore senior citizens' homes.
Last year when "I visited his project, he literally
took his sweatshirt off his back and gave it to me so that I
would never forget the kids at City Year. And I still wear it
when I go jogging, always remembering what they're doing in
Boston to help those kids. (Applause.)
The spirit of service moves Orah Fireman, a graduate
of Wesleyan College. As a sophomore in high school, she worked
with disadvantaged children in upstate New York. That experience
changed her life. And during her high school and college years,
she continued to work with children. And now that she is out of
college, she has begun what will probably be a lifetime of
service by working at a school for emotionally disturbed children
in Boston. She wants other people to have the opportunity to
serve, and she wrote this: Service work teaches responsibility
and compassion. It fights alienation by proving to young people
that they can make a difference. There is no lesson more
important than that.
Well, there are stories like this in this room and
all across America. And we're going to create thousands of more
of them through national service. We'll work with groups with
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proven track records to serve their community, giving them the
support they need. And if you have more good ideas, if you're
entrepreneurs of national service, we'll let you compete for our
form of venture capital -- develop new programs to serve your
neighbors. That's how we want the national service program to
grow every year -- rewarding results, building on success, and
bubbling up from the grassroots energy and compassion and
intellect of America.
I don't want service to wait while this potential is
wasted. That's why I want to make this summer a summer of
service, when young people can not only serve their communities,
but build a foundation for a new national effort. I've asked
Congress to invest in and I'm asking young people to participate
in a special effort in national service and leadership training
just this summer. We are going to recruit about 1,000 young
people from every background -- from high school dropouts to
college graduates, to send to an intensive leadership training
program for national service at the beginning of the summer.
Then we'll ask them to work on one of our country's
most urgent problems, helping our children who are in danger of
losing their God-given potential. Some of them will tutor. Some
will work on programs to immunize young children from preventible
childhood diseases. Some will help to develop and run
recreational centers or reclaim urban parks from dealers and
debris. Some will counsel people a few years younger than
themselves to keep them out of gangs and into good activities.
And everyone will learn about serving our country and helping our
communities.
At the end of this summer, we'll bring all these
people together for several days of debriefing and training, and
then they'll all join in a youth service summit. I will attend
the meeting and I expect to listen a lot more than I talk. I'll
ask leaders from Congress, from business, labor, religious, and
community groups to attend the youth service summit, too. We'll.
give those who serve the honor they deserve, and we'll learn a
lot more about how to build this national service program. And
from the thousand pioneers of this summer, I want the national
service to grow 100-fold in the next four years. (Applause.)
But even when hundreds of thousands are serving, I
want to maintain the pioneer spirit of this first few months,
because national service can make America new again. It can help
solve our problems, educate our people, and build our communities
back together. So if anybody here would like to be one of those
1,000 -- or if anybody who is listening to this speech by radio
or television or reads about it and would like to be one of those
1,000, drop me a card at the White House and just mark it
national service. We're going to pick them. And I can't promise
you'll be selected, but I promise you'll be considered. I want
to engage the energies of America in this effort. (Applause.)
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I also want to say that you shouldn't wait for the
summer or for a new program. We need to begin now. We are going
to be looking for the kinds of ideas that we ought to be funding.
This is Monday. I ask you by Friday -- every one of you -- to
think about what you think you can do and what we should do to be
agents of renewal; to talk with your parents, your clergy, your
friends, your teachers, to join the effort to renew our community
and to rebuild our country; and to write to me about what you are
doing. It's time for millions of us to change our country block
by block, neighborhood by neighborhood -- time to return to our
roots an excitement, an idealism, and an energy. (Applause.)
I have to tell you that there are some among us who
do not believe that young Americans will answer a call to action,
who believe that our people now measure their success merely in
the accumulation of material things. They believe this call to
service will go unanswered. But I believe they are dead wrong.
(Applause.)
And so, especially to the young Americans here, I
ask you to prove that those who doubt you are wrong about your
generation. And today I ask all of you who are young in spirit
-- whether you are a 10-year-old in a service program in our
schools who reads to still younger children, or a 72-year-old who
has become a foster grandparent -- I ask you all to believe that
you can contribute to your community and your country. And in so
doing, you will find the best in yourself.
You will learn the lessons about your life that you
might not ever learn any other way. You will learn again that
each of us has the spark of potential to accomplish something
truly and enduringly unique. You will experience the
satisfaction of making a connection in a way with another person
that you could do in no other way. You will learn that the joy
of mastering a new skill or discovering a new insight is exceeded
only by the joy of helping someone else do the same thing. You
will know the satisfaction of being valued not for what you own
or what you earn or what position you hold, but just because of
what you have given to someone else. (Applause.) You will
understand in personal ways the wisdom of the words spoken years
ago by Martin Luther King who said "Everybody can be great
because everybody can serve." (Applause.)
I ask you all, my fellow Americans, to support our
proposal for national service and to live a proposal for national
service; to learn the meaning of America at its best, and to
recreate for others America at its best. We are not just another
country. We have always been a special kind of community, linked
by a web of rights and responsibilities, and bound together, not
by bloodlines, but by beliefs. At an age in time when people all
across the world are being literally torn apart by racial
hatreds, by ethnic hatreds, by religious divisions, we are a
nation, with all of our problems, where people can come together
across racial and religious lines and hold hands and work
together, not just to endure our differences, but to celebrate
- 11 -
them. I ask you to make America celebrate that again.
(Applause.)
I ask you, in closing, to commit yourselves to this
season of service because America needs it. We need every one of
you to live up to the fullest of your potential, and we need you
to reach those who are not here and who will never hear this
talk, and who will never have the future they could otherwise
have if not for something that you could do. The great challenge
of your generation is to prove that every person here in this
great land can live up to the fullest of their God-given
capacity. If we do it, the 21st century will be the American
century. The American Dream will be kept alive if you will today
answer the call to service.
Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)
END
1:50 P.M. EST
National Service - Now
lenge is great. We must combine the
would be self-defeating. It would
The New York Times
By Bill Clinton
intensity of the post-World War II
squash the spirit of innovation that
2/28/93
years with the Idealism of the earty
national service demands.
WASHINGTON
1960's - and help young people afford
By design, our national service pro-
a college education or job training.
gram will not happen overnight. In-
A is dead.
Of everything I've
In 1993, we'll restore the spirit of
stead. It will grow year by year, with
learned in my first
service by asking our people to serve
funding reaching $3 billion in 1997.
few weeks in the
here at home. We won't refight the
And as I've said many times, I be-
White House, that's
wars we won, but we'll tackle the
lieve it will be the best money we ever
the thing that's made
growing domestic dangers that
spend.
me the happiest. Whether or not the
threaten our future.
If Congress gives us the chance,
people I've met outside the capital
Our new initiative will embody the
this summer we'll create an eight-
support the changes I have proposed,
same principles as the old G.I. BILL It
week leadership training program.
they're all saying they're ready to
will challenge our people to serve our
We'll recruit more than 1,000 young
rebuild our country.
country and do the work that should
people for special projects to meet
But they know, as I do, that no
- and must - be done. It will give
the needs of children at risk and to
economic plan can do it alone. A plan
those who serve the honor and re-
train the first class of full-year par-
can make vaccines available to chil-
wards they deserve. It will invest in
ticipants.
dren, but alone it will not administer
the future of the quiet heroes who
In the first full year of our initiative,
the shots to all of them. It can put
invest in the future of others.
we'll launch our flexible loan program
security guards in the schools, but
The national service legislation
and aim to put tens of thousands of
alone it will not take gangs off the
that I will send to Congress shortly
people to work. By 1997, more than
streets. And it can provide more aid
will give our people the chance to
100,000 citizens could be serving our
for college, but alone it will not make
serve in two basic ways:
country, getting education and train-
the costs of college less daunting for
First, it will make it easier for
ing benefits in return. And hundreds
the middle class.
young people to hold low-paying pub-
of thousands more people could be
That's why I believe we need na-
lic service jobs and still pay off their
doing invaluable work because col-
tional service now.
student loans.
lege loans no longer ock the way.
If Congress acts quickly enough, just
Under our program. Americans
But the best pla -ing and the most
months from now more than 1,000
will be able to borrow the money they
ambitious design won't make this VI-
young people will start serving our
need for college and pay it back as a
sion of national service a reality. That
country in a special summer effort. In
small percentage of their income
responsibility ultimately rests with
four years. the successors to these
over time. By giving graduates the
the American people.
pioneers will multiply a hundredfold.
chance to repay loans on an afford-
I am convinced that after 12 years
Imagine: an army of 100,000 young
able, reasonable schedule, this "in-
of drifting apart instead of working
people restoring urban and rural com-
come-contingent" program will allow
together we are ready to meet the
munities and giving their labor in re-
our people to do the work that our
challenge. From a 14-year-old boy in
turn for education and training.
communities really need.
North Dakota who sent us $1,000 to
National service is an idea as old as
Second, our legislation will create
help pay off the deficit, to a 92-year.
America. Time and again, our people
new opportunities for Americans to
old widower in Kansas who followed
have found new ways to honor citizen-
serve our country for a year or two
his example. people are demonstrat-
ship and match the needs of changing
and receive financial support for edu-
ing that they want to give something
back to their nation.
times.
cation or training in return.
Lincoln's Homestead Act rewarded
National service will exercise our
We'll offer people of different ages
those who had the courage to settle the
talents and rebuild our communities.
and educational levels different ways
frontier with the land to raise a family.
to serve. And to focus our energies and
It will harness the energy of our
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Social Securi-
youth and attack the problems of our
get the most for our money, we'll direct
ty Act insured that Americans who
time. It will bring together men and
special attention to a few areas:
work a lifetime can grow old with
women of every age and race and lift
We'll ask thousands of young peo-
dignity. Harry S. Truman's G.I. Bill
up our nation's spirit. And for all of
ple to serve in our schools - some as
rewarded the service of my father's
us, it will rekindle the excitement of
teachers, others as youth mentors,
generation, transforming youthful vet-
being Americans.
reading specialists and math tutors.
erans into an army of educated civil-
They'll join the effort to Insure that
lans that ed our nation into a new era.
our schools offer the best education in
Fur my generation, the reality of
the world.
national service was born 32 years
We'll send people into medical
ago tomorrow, when President John
F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps.
clinics to help immunize the nation's
At its peak. the Peace Corps enrolled
2-year-olds. Some participants VIII be
only 16,000 volunteers yet n changed
qualified to give the shots, be thou-
sands of others can provide essential
the way a generation of Americans
look at themselves and the world.
support, contacting parents and
Today, the spirit of our people once
following up to make sure children
again can meet head-on the troubles
get the shots they need.
of our times.
We'll help police forces across the
The task is as complex as our chal-
country through a new Police Corps
trained to walk beats. We'll also or-
President Clinton will deliver a
ganize others in our communities to
speech on national service tomorrow
keep kids out of gangs and off drugs.
at Rutgers University.
We'll put still others to work con-
trolling pollution and recycling waste,
to help insure that we pass on to our
children a nation that is clean and
safe for years to come.
Our national service program will
offer more than benefits to individ-
uals. We'll help pay operating costs
for community groups with proved
track records, providing the support
they'll need to grow. And we'll let
entrepreneurs compete for venture
capital to develop new service pro-
grams.
While the Federal Government will
provide the seed money for national
service, we are determined that the
participants - the individuals who
serve and the groups that sponsor
their service will guide the process.
Spending tens of millions of tax dol-
lars to build a massive bureaucracy
THE WASHINGTON POST
SATURDAY. MARCH 13.
Yet Clinton's philosophy of service rep-
resents intellectual newness to many in
high school and college. John F. Kennedy's
appeais to national service are seen as
historical relics, known from books but not
live on MTV as are Clinton's. It wasn't a
SATURDAY. MARCH 13. 1993 A21
politician's celebrityhood that created sup-
port for the president at Notre Dame and
Rutgers. Students saw in him someone
Colman McCarthy
with a positive message-put community
interest above self-interest-that many
professors and counselors at their schools
Clinton's
had been exposing them to all along: If you
can't teach the illiterate. comfort the sick
and handicapped, or mend whatever and
whoever is broken during your college
Call to
years, you're receiving a limited education.
Clinton deserves to be honored for
taking a risk that he'll be able to raise the
Service
money for his program of national ser-
vice. Critics in Congress with no greater
agenda than carping about ideas they
were too dull-witted or timid to propose
No speech in the Clinton campaign
themselves now lie in wait for the presi-
was more inspirational than the candi-
dent when he comes in with specifics.
date's remarks at the University of No-
They will say Clinton's ideas are danger-
tre Dame last September. As president,
ous because they are romantic and utopi-
Clinton didn't match it until his March 1
an. a charge that ignores the thought of
speech at Rutgers University. At both
James Madison in 1788: "No theoretical
campuses, he issued calls for national
checks-no form of government, can
service for college students.
render us secure. To suppose that any
At Notre Dame: "If we are truly to
form of government will secure liberty or
practice what we preach, Americans of
happiness without any virtue in the peo-
every faith and viewpoint should come
ple is a chimerical idea."
together to promote the common good."
Some critics charge that Clinton is into
It was similar at Rutgers: "National ser-
bribery: tuition money for service. While
vice is nothing less than the American
the details are being worked out on how
way to change America."
much money for what service, who com-
Clinton's effort to rally the young to
plains that the U.S. Army entices re-
altruism has created a debate that pits
cruits with as much as $20,000 toward a
idealism against realism, as if the two are
college education. Why isn't it bribery
forever locked in conflict. Where's the mon-
when ROTC programs pay students to
ey, ask reaists, for the nution-for-service
shine their boots occasionally and take
program that Clinton is proposing: 3389
gut courses in military lore. Nor is much
million in scholarships for 25,000 students
alarm expressed over the most lavish
the first year and $3.4 billion for 100,000
enticement of all: a free ride at the
by 1997. Realists say that Clinton's sweet
military academies in exchange for a few
talk ignores sour facts: There's no money
years in uniform after graduation.
for a new social program.
Clinton's Rutgers speech marked the
From that negative, despairing argu-
32nd anniversary of the Peace Corps. Ken-
ment, Clinton is supposed to get the
nedy's spirited message was repeated by
message: Don't even try. That means
Clinton: "Answer the call to service." In
don't lead, just preside. The past 12 years
"The Bold Experiment," a history of the
witnessed two presiders in the White
Peace Corps by Gerard Rice, one of those
House. Most first-year college students
who responded to Kennedy's call explained
today were in kindergarten when Ronald
why: "I'd never done anything political,
Reagan was elected and in fourth grade
patriotic or unselfish because nobody ever
when reelected. They came into adoles-
asked me to. Kennedy asked."
cence under a politician who tried nothing
So has Clinton.
by way of linking government with nation-
al service. Instead of selflessness to oth-
ers, he extolled self-enrichment.
Evidence suggests that the young
weren't seduced either by Reagan's mes-
sage of contempt for government or his
disdain for altruism. The 1980s saw a
surge in campus community-service pro-
grams, such as the ones Clinton praised
at Notre Dame and Rutgers. Amnesty
International chapters increased on cam-
puses, as did those of Oxfam USA. Appli-
cations to Peace Corps remained high, as
they did for such private domestic pro-
as the lesuit Volunteer Corns and
BACKGROUNDER ON
PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
Timing. The President will submit his legislation to Congress
soon -- certainly this spring. We are still working out the
details because we want to get it right.
Two parts. The legislation has two parts. One part will create
opportunities for young people to serve our country and help pay
for college in return. The other part will enable young people to
pay back their student loans as a small percentage of their
income over time, so they can take essential community jobs and
still pay off their loans.
Funding. The President has requested $7.4 for national service
over the next four ears. The funding level rises each year, to
$3.4 billion in 1997, because this initiative aims to support the
growing work of America's communities -- not overwhelm it.
Funding starts at $400 million in appropriations and $100 million
in outlays next year.
Number of Participants. The numbers will reflect the enthusiasm
of the American people and the ingenuity of our communities in
developing solid ways to put our people's energy to work. By
1997, we believe there could be more than 100,000 young people
paying for post-secondary education by serving their country, and
hundreds of thousands more serving because loans no longer block
the way.
Eligibility and benefits. Students before, during and after
college will be eligible to serve for a year or two. In return,
they will get a small stipend, health and child care benefits
where necessary, and an educational benefit to pay for college or
job training.
Activities. The program aims to meet unmet needs in critical
ar as. It is not job training. Possible tasks include: teaching
or serving as a teachers aid or mentor; working as a police
officer or desk aide; providing health care or doing linked
outreach and administrative; recycling or controlling pollution.
Administration. The program will be non-bureaucratic, using
venture capital to support entrepreneurs and public-private
partnerships to support growing programs. States will be given
the opportunity to design national service plans to meet their
particular needs. Within guidelines to prevent fraud and ensure
that important work gets done, local organizations will be given
the opportunity to design and implement solutions to local needs.
Nondisplacement. The legislation will include strict
nondisplacement and nonduplication provisions. National service
will only meet needs that are not otherwise being met.
BACKGROUNDER ON
PRESIDENT'S SUMMER OF SERVICE PROGRAM
Overview. At 4 to 10 sites around the country, the Summer of
Service will involve 1,000 diverse young people in a program to
help children at-risk and provide leadership training.
Funding. The program will be funded with a $15 million
appropriation in the FY 93 stimulus package.
Goals. The program has two major goals: To show what national
service can accomplish, meeting critical needs and bringing
people together; and to develop a leadership corps for future
years of national service through the President's initiative.
National service was such a priority of the President, he didn't
want to let it wait a year.
Targeted needs. The programs in the Summer of Service aim to help
children-at-risk in the areas of education, health, crime
prevention, and environmental protection. Some participants will
tutor; some will help provide shots; some will develop
recreational centers; some will counsel youths to keep them out
of gangs. The possibilities are as diverse as our problems, but
the goal is always the same: tangible, meaningful change to help
children-at-risk.
Participation. At least 1,000 young people will participate in
the program at at a select number of sites around the country.
Participants will be a diverse group -- including high school
dropouts and college graduates -- but they all must bring
leadership qualities to the program.
Leadership training. For several days at the beginning of the
summer and several at the end, the young people will gather to
share their experiences and complete an intensive leadership
program.
SEA Change Awards. Service Entrepreneurial Awards will pe
available to a few participants (25) with ideas to start new
service programs. All participants who are interested in
continuing to work through the next year will receive placement
assistance.
Administration. The Commission on National and Community Service
will administer a competitive process to determine what programs
participate. The Commission is working quickly to ensure that
programs are developed quickly and efficiently to succeed for
this summer.
NATIONAL SERVICE
GENERAL TALKING POINTS
National Service as a challenge to young people:
*
America has serious problems. If young people don't solve
them, nobody will. That's why we are challenging America's youth
to a season of service. You can create America's future -- and
change your own. The country belongs to you if you will seize
this opportunity.
*
Government leaves off somewhere. It can make immunizations
available, but it can't make kids show up for shots. It can put
more money into Head Start, but it can't teach all the kids who
need to join. It can spend more on police organizations, but it
can't mobilize communities to protect themselves. And it can
raise penalties for polluti on, but it can't force people to
recycle.
*
Young people have a unique ability to fulfill these needs.
You have the energy. You have the ideas. You have the
determination. Bill Clinton wants to give you the tools to make
it happen.
I know that today, with COOL, I am preaching to the choir.
You are doing it already. Some of you are teaching children to
read. Some are providing shelter to the needy. Some are doing
environmental audits. And some are giving kids the medical care
they desperately need.
*
And all of you aren't just doing; you're leading. You're
showing the way for the rest of America.
*
You are the forefront of the movement that Bill Clinton
supports. You are the young people who are "changing America
forever, and for the better," as Bill Clinton urged in his
Rutgers speech.
*
So today I am just saying: Keep doing what you are doing --
but do it more. Double your efforts. Get your friends involved.
Get your teachers or your parents to work with you. Go get
businesses to pay for what you are doing. Because this season of
service will be led by youth -- but it has to be joined by
everyone.
*
I am here to tell you: The President is with you and behind
you -- we won't get ahead of you -- but we believe in everything
you stand for, and we want to help.
ATTACHMENT 1
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF SOS PROGRAMS
# OF
TYPE OF
PARTICIPANT
PARTICIPANT
PROGRAM
PARTIC
SERV**
EDUCATION
COMPOSITION
LOCATION
EAST BAY, OAKLAND
250 ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
BUILD UP, LA
150
ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
UCLA (NURSING), LA
50
H
COLLEGE BOUND
MINORITY
URBAN
SUMMERBRIDGE, NEW ORLEANS
100
ED
COLLEGE BOUND
DIVERSE
URBAN
OHIO WESLEYAN, CENTRAL OHIO
75
ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
URB/RUR
NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE TECH, NEWARK
200
ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
TEACH FOR AMERICA, WASH HTS, NY
50
ENV,ED
COLLEGE BOUND
DIVERSE
URBAN
HARLEM FREEDOM SCHOOL, MAN, BRKLYN
50
ED,H
COLLEGE BOUND
MINORITY
URBAN
ACORN, QUEENS, HARLEM, BRKYLN
50
H,ENV
NON COLL BOUND
MINORITY
URBAN
MPOWER, BALTIMORE MARYLAND
75
ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
GREATER PHILADELPHIA URBAN AFFAIRS
150
H
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
CITY YEAR, BOSTON
75
ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
TUFTS, BOSTON
50
ED
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
HANDS ON ATLANTA
50
ED,ENV
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
50
ED
MIX
DIVERSE
URBAN
PINAL GILA, AZ
50
ALL
MIX
DIVERSE
RURAL
RED LAKE BAND, MINNESOTA
50
ENV
NON COLL BOUND
NATIVE AMERICAN
RURAL
1525
"VIRTUALLY ALL APPLICANTS HAVE MULTIPLE PARTNERS IN THE PROGRAMS
**E=ENVIRONMENT, H=HEALTH, ED=EDUCATION, PS=PUBLIC SAFETY, ALL=COMBINATION OF ALL FOUR
4/23/93
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
April 30, 1993
NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
The national service initiative is innovative public policy founded on traditional
American values. The initiative will build the American community through a domestic Peace
Corps that brings Americans together to tackle pressing problems. It will offer educational
opportunity by providing educational awards to hundreds of thousands of Americans who
serve our country; and by overhauling the student loan system, to offer EXCEL Accounts and
lower interest rates. The initiative will demand personal responsibility by requiring Americans
who borrow to repay their loans in one of two ways -- either through service or through
repayment plans that make it tougher to default. In all this, the Act will reinvent government
-- to unleash the initiative of the American people.
The President's initiative has three basic components:
The National Service Trust, which will establish an innovative, entrepreneurial
Corporation for National Service to offer Americans educational awards in return for
vital service to our country. The Corporation is designed to cut waste and promote
excellence in government, encourage locally driven initiatives, create flexibility for
students, and foster competition among programs.
EXCEL Accounts, which will offer all borrowers income contingent repayment plans.
The new income contingent repayment plan will allow borrowers to spread their loan
payments over a long period of time, reduce defaults, and encourage students to take
lower-paying community service jobs.
One-Stop Direct Student Loans, which will save taxpayers billions of dollars in
bank subsidies and defaults by replacing private capital with Federal borrowing.
Students will receive some of the savings in reduced interest rates and a streamlined
"one stop" loan delivery system.
THE NATIONAL SERVICE TRUST
The National Service initiative will offer an educational award to Americans who do vital
work in one of four priority areas: education, human services, environment and public safety. In
addition to the trust, the initiative will support a variety of other programs to develop citizenship
among all Americans, ranging from elementary school "service-learning" projects to older
American volunteer programs.
1. DIVERSE AND WIDE PARTICIPATION. The National Service initiative will offer
Americans 17 or older opportunities to serve our country before or after college. While
contributing millions of hours of service, National Service Trust participants will learn
an ethic of civic responsibility. And while communities will recruit, select and place
volunteers, a nationwide public awareness campaign will build a common identity for
programs, disseminate information widely through college and high school placement
offices, and help place a leader corps of participants across the country.
2. EDUCATIONAL AWARD WITH DIFFERENT USES. The program will provide
those who complete a year of service with a $5,000 award for college, graduate school
or job training. In addition, participants in general will receive a roughly minimum wage
stipend, and health and child care, if necessary.
3. PRESSING COMMUNITY NEEDS. National service means educating children,
helping immunize infants, fighting crime, and stopping pollution. Within the broad
priority areas, communities will be able to design programs that meet their own unmet
needs. Programs will be designed in ways best suited to local needs, and range from
specialized service programs with in-college training and individualized placements; to
youth corps offering disadvantaged young people a second chance while they perform
invaluable service; to community corps that bring together the young and the old of all
economic and racial backgrounds.
4. REINVENTING GOVERNMENT. The Commission on National and Community
Service and ACTION will be combined in a single government Corporation for National
Service. To promote excellence, the Corporation will be governed by a bipartisan Board,
offer pay-for-performance to its employees, and raise private funds for the Trust. In
addition, the Corporation will establish quality guidelines for all programs. Programs
themselves must also set measurable goals and demonstrate success in order to receive
continued funding. Within these bounds, local programs will have flexibility to design the
best ways to meet their goals. In all instances, no program will be guaranteed funding;
all will have to compete for funding.
5. PARTNERSHIPS. Programs will match federal assistance with private or other
support. State commissions composed of local representatives appointed by governors will
work hand in hand with the national Corporation to support service.
EXCEL ACCOUNTS
The Clinton Administration will make repayment easier and encourage national and
community service through EXCEL Accounts. All students will have the opportunity to repay
as a percentage of their income over time. The EXCEL Account will make such "income-
contingent" loans available for the first time. The EXCEL Account offers students offers
Americans the chance to invest in their education and training and to pay back their loans as they
start to reap the benefits.
1. FLEXIBLE AND UNIVERSAL LOANS: The EXCEL Account makes college and
training accessible to all students, and to allow students the maximum flexibility in paying
back their loans.
2. ENDING CRUSHING DEBT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE STARTING THEIR
CAREERS: Currently our education system often makes young people pay large
amounts of debt just at the moment when young people have their lowest earning
potential and the hardest time finding jobs. The EXCEL Account allows a young person
the ability to pay a set percentage of income, so that repayment is proportionate to
income.
3. ENCOURAGE NATIONAL SERVICE: Too many of our young people are
discouraged from taking lower paying jobs as teachers or police officers because they face
large fixed monthly payments. The EXCEL Accounts will encourage national and
community service by ensuring that young people will not have to pay an exceptionally
high percentage of their income simply because they have chosen jobs where their service
to their communities exceeds the size of their paychecks. The EXCEL Account will, for
example, make it far easier for a recent medical school graduate -- who normally would
have high fixed monthly loans --- to spend a few years serving lower-income
communities without facing a crushing debt burden.
4. ENCOURAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Our current loan system can discourage
entrepreneurial behavior. Where a young person out of school faces fixed student loan
costs, that creates a disincentive to take high risks -- like entrepreneurial activity
-- where a person may make little money in the short-term in pursuit of larger rewards
in the future. Allowing repayments based on income eliminates these disincentives to
take risk.
5. LOWER DEFAULT RATES: Because EXCEL Accounts will determine loan
payments on the basis of IRS verified incomes, they will dramatically reduce default rates
by ensuring that anyone who works pays, and by not forcing borrowers into default
simply because they experience a period of unemployment.
ONE-STOP DIRECT STUDENT LOANS
This initiative -- the Student Loan Reform Act of 1993 --proposes important reforms in the
student loan system, which will provide one-stop shopping for student loans, reduce
borrowing costs for students, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
1. USING FEDERAL CAPITAL: Because the federal government can borrow
money at a lower interest rate than can the private sector, using federal capital saves
taxpayers billions of dollars in high subsidies to banks and other private lenders.
2: SAVINGS: The Congressional Budget Office, the General Accounting Office, and
the Department of Education have all found that direct lending will save billions of
dollars over the next four years, even after transition costs. Students will benefit from
these savings in the form of reduced interest rates.
3. FLEXIBLE REPAYMENT OPTIONS: Students will have a variety of flexible
repayment options designed to ease repayment, avoid defaults and encourage
community service, including the new EXCEL Accounts, which will provide the
opportunity for students to repay loans as a percentage of income over time.
4. STREAMLINED DELIVERY: Direct lending simplifies the current complicated
maze of financial aid for students and parents by cutting down on the number of
middlemen and procedures in the current system. Most students will receive all of
their financial assistance through one stop at existing college financial aid offices.
5. INSTITUTIONS AS ORIGINATORS: Willing and able institutions will make
(or "originate") loans directly to students on campus, and will receive a fee for
providing this service. No school, however, will be forced to originate loans.
Institutions that do not originate loans will be provided the services of alternative
originators, selected and paid for by the Department of Education. No institutions will
service or collect these student loans.
6. THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION'S ROLE: The Department of
Education will oversee an orderly transition to the new system, and monitor the new
program. The Department is already working on several initiatives, including the
development of a National Student Loan Data System, to improve its oversight
capabilities and ensure a smooth transition to direct lending. The Department will
contract with public or private entities, on a fee-for-service basis, to provide
alternative origination and to service and collect loans.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
April 30, 1993
OUTLINE OF LEGISLATION
NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
President Clinton's national service program will expand educational
opportunity, reward individual responsibility, and build the American community
by bringing citizens together to tackle common problems. The President's
support for service extends from the youngest elementary students to our oldest
citizens, and includes everything from part-time volunteer activities to full-time
public service jobs.
The centerpiece of the President's initiative to support service is a new
program to offer educational awards to Americans who make a substantial
commitment to service. In addition to this program, which builds on the youth
corps and demonstration programs of the National and Community Service Act
of 1990, the National Service Trust Act includes:
Extension and improvement of programs in the National and
Community Service Act of 1990 that enhance elementary and secondary
education through community service in schools, support after-school and
summer programs for school-age youth, and fund service programs on
college campuses.
Support for the Points of Light Foundation, to support volunteerism.
Extension and improvement of VISTA and the Older American
Volunteer Programs authorized by the Domestic Volunteer Service Act.
Creation of a new Investment Fund for Quality and Innovation to
support model service programs and activities designed to ensure the
development of high quality national service programs.
1
NATIONAL SERVICE TRUST ACT
Focus of Service
National service must address unmet educational, environmental, human, or public
safety needs. National priorities may be established within these areas.
National service must improve the life of the participants, through citizenship
education and training.
Participants may not displace or duplicate the functions of existing workers.
Corporation for National Service
Structure
The national service program will be administered by a new government Corporation
for National Service, created by combining two existing independent federal agencies, the
Commission on National and Community Service and ACTION.
The corporation will be responsible for administering all programs authorized under
the National and Community Service Act and Domestic Volunteer Service Act, including
VISTA and the Older American Volunteer Programs. The Corporation will also fund training
and technical assistance, service clearinghouses and other activities.
The investment division of the corporation will administer the new trust program and
programs currently administered by the Commission on National and Community Service.
The operating division will administer programs currently run by the ACTION agency,
including VISTA and the Older American Volunteer Programs.
Flexible and quality-driven personnel policies will include pay-for-performance and a
5-year limit on most tenures.
The Corporation may solicit and accept private funds.
Governance
The corporation will have an eleven-member volunteer Board of Directors appointed
by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It will be bipartisan and include persons
experienced in national service and experts in providing educational, environmental, human,
or public safety service.
The first Board members will be appointed primarily from the Board of Directors of
the Commission on National and Community Service. Seven Cabinet secretaries will serve as
non-voting ex-officio members.
2
The Board will develop the corporation's strategic plan, approve grant decisions,
review other policy and personnel decisions, receive and act on reports from the Inspector
General, supervise evaluations, and advise the Corporation on all issues.
A Chairperson of the Board and a Managing Director for each division will be full-
time employees appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Oversight
An Inspector General will oversee programs to guard against fraud and abuse.
Programs must arrange for independent audits and evaluations, and may also be
required to participate in national or state evaluations.
State Commissions
Structure
In order to receive a grant, each state must establish a commission on national service.
The corporation will provide funding for the state commission.
Commissions will have members appointed by the governors on a bipartisan basis
from among the following: youth, educators, representatives of youth corps, older American
volunteer programs, and other nonprofit service providers, labor, business, and experts in
meeting particular unmet needs. No more than 25 percent of voting members may be state
officials, although additional state agency representatives may sit on the commissions as non-
voting ex-officio members. Commissions will elect their own chair.
A representative of the corporation will sit on each commission as a voting member
and act as liaison between the commission and the corporation.
Duties
State commissions will be responsible for selecting programs to be funded under the
state formula allocation, and in any competitive grant states may request.
State commissions must also design strategic plans for service in the states, recruit
participants, and disseminate information about service opportunities.
State commissions may also support clearinghouses, training and technical assistance,
and other initiatives to support service. They may not operate national service programs, but
may use a portion of funds to support programs run by state agencies.
Transition
For a period of one year, existing state agencies may assume the responsibility of the
state commissions.
3
The Corporation may approve an alternative agency in place of a commission at a
state's request, if the agency ensures diverse participation in policy making.
Allocation of Funds
States submitting plans approved by the Corporation will receive one-third of funds
according to a population-based formula and one-third on a competitive basis.
One-third of funds will be allocated directly by the corporation. Programs eligible for
priority consideration include federal programs, national nonprofit organizations operating
multiple programs or competitive grant programs, national service initiatives in more than one
state and meeting priority needs, proposals to replicate successful programs in more than one
state, professional corps, and innovative national service programs.
Programs
Goals
Programs must set measurable goals regarding the impact of the service on the
community and on participants.
Eligibility
Programs eligible for national service designation include diverse community corps,
youth corps, specialized service programs focusing on a specific community need, individual
placement programs, campus-based service programs, programs that train and place service-
learning coordinators in schools or team leaders in corps programs, intergenerational
programs, national service entrepreneurship programs, and professional corps.
Programs may be run by non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education,
local governments, school districts, states, or federal agencies.
Programs may not provide direct benefits to for-profit businesses, labor unions, or
partisan political organizations, or involve participants in religious activities.
Selection
Selection criteria include quality (based on criteria developed in consultation with
experts in the field), innovation, sustainability, and replicability of programs.
Past experience and management skills of program leadership, involvement of
participants in leadership roles, and the extent to which the program builds on existing
programs will also be taken into account.
Programs serving and recruiting participants from communities of need, including
those designated as enterprise zones, community redevelopment areas, areas with high poverty
4
rates, environmentally distressed areas, and communities adversely affected by decreased
defense spending will also receive special consideration.
Funding
All participants will receive educational awards.
To develop programs, one-year planning grants will be available. To support national
service participants, three-year renewable grants will be available for program demonstration,
expansion, or replication.
Administrative costs will be limited to five percent of all grants other than planning
grants.
Programs must pay 15 percent of the stipend and health care benefits in cash and 25
percent of other program costs receiving federal support. The 25 percent match may be in
cash or in kind from any source other than programs funded under the National and
Community Service or Domestic Volunteer Service Acts.
Federal funds must supplement, not supplant, state and local dollars.
Participants
Eligibility
Individuals may serve before, during, or after post-secondary education.
In general, participants may be age 17 or older. Youth corps participants may be age
16 or older.
Participants must be high school graduates or agree to achieve their GED prior to
receiving educational awards.
Selection
Participants will be recruited and selected on a nondiscriminatory basis and without
regard to political affiliation by local programs designated by states or the federal
government.
A national or state recruitment system will help interested individuals locate
placements in local programs. Information about available positions will be widely
disseminated through high schools, colleges and other placement offices. A special leadership
corps may be recruited, trained, and placed to assist in the development of new national
service programs.
5
Term of Service
To earn an educational award, a participant one year of full-time or two years of part-
time service in a program designated by a state or the federal government. An individual
may serve up to two terms and earn up to two educational awards.
Educational Awards
Educational awards of $5,000 will be provided for a term of service. Educational
awards may be used to repay loans for higher education or to pay for higher education or
training.
Educational awards will be federally funded and deposited into a national service trust
on behalf of all participants accepted into the program. Organizations and individuals may
donate funds to support national service participants in the donor's community.
Payments will be made directly to qualified post-secondary educational institutions,
including two- and four-year colleges, training programs, and graduate or professional
programs.
In the case of participants with outstanding loan obligations for qualified educational
activities, awards will be paid directly to lenders.
Awards will not be taxable and must be used within five years of receipt.
Stipends
Programs will set stipends within program guidelines. However, federal support will
be limited to a match of 85 percent of an annual stipend equivalent to benefits received by
VISTA volunteers. Programs may provide additional stipends up to twice this amount, with
no federal match for the portion of the stipend in excess of the VISTA benefit.
In the limited case of designated professional corps in areas of great need, such as
teaching and public safety in underserved areas, participants may be paid a salary in excess of
the guidelines and receive an educational award. However, no federal support will be
available for a stipend.
Health and Child Care
All participants without access to health insurance will receive health coverage.
Federal dollars will pay up to 85 percent of the cost of these benefits.
Participants may receive child care assistance, if needed.
6
Serve-America
The proposal extends and expands the existing Serve-America program for school-age
youth and Higher Education Innovative Projects for Community Service. Modifications to
these programs are described below.
Service-Learning Program
Program Goals
To build a foundation for service among the nation's youth, inspiring them to serve
and instilling in them the values and attitude to serve effectively after graduation.
To create opportunities for all American children to serve our country.
Types of Programs
Programs may be partnerships of local education agencies and community-based
organizations.
Local educational agencies may receive planning grants to hire service-learning
coordinators.
Types of Funding
School-based programs will be eligible for funding through state educational agencies,
partly based on formula and partly through competition.
State educational agencies must develop state plans that indicate programs to be
funded and detail 3-year strategies for service-learning in their states. The Corporation must
approve state plans.
Programs may receive one-year planning grants for school-based programs.
Subgranting to experienced institutions for school-based programs will also be allowed.
All local programs will be required to provide at least 10 percent of total program
costs in the first year of funding, increasing to 50 percent in the fourth. Local programs may
utilize other federal education funds to meet the match requirement.
Training and Technical Assistance
Clearinghouses will be expanded to further enable them to disseminate information
and curriculum materials; train teachers, service sponsors and participants; and provide needs
assessments or technical assistance.
7
States will also receive additional resources to train and educate state educational
personnel.
Community-based Program for School-Age Youth
Community-based organizations working with school-age youth may receive grants
from the State Commission for programs to involve such youth in community service.
National non-profit organizations may apply to the Corporation to make subgrants or
run multi-state community-service programs for this population.
Higher Education Innovative Projects
Higher Education institutions, consortia of such institutions, or partnerships of higher
education institutions and non-profit institutions may receive grants from the Corporation for
student community-service programs or programs to train teachers in service-learning
methods.
Funds may supplement College Work-Study funds being used for community service
placements.
Extension of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973
The proposal extends and expands VISTA and Older American Volunteer Programs
authorized by the Domestic Volunteer Service Act. Following a transition period, these
programs will be administered by the corporation for national service.
VISTA
Extends authority for the VISTA program and increases number of VISTA volunteers.
Authorizes new VISTA Summer Associate program.
Authorizes a University Year for VISTA program to encourage student volunteer
efforts addressing the needs of low-income communities.
Removes restrictions limiting the flexibility to manage VISTA, while reaffirming
commitment to recruiting a diverse group of VISTA volunteers including young and older
adults.
Increases post-service stipends by $30 for each month of service. Such stipends are
not available if VISTA volunteer accepts an educational award under the national service
trust.
Continues support for VISTA Literacy Corps.
8
Special Volunteer Programs
Provides broadened authority under the Special Volunteer Programs to supporting
demonstrations and innovations, provide technical assistance, and promote other
entrepreneurial activities. Eliminates specific authority for student community service and
drug programs, which are covered under the broadened demonstration authority and under the
National and Community Service Act.
Older American Volunteer Programs
Renames the Older American Volunteer Programs as National Senior Volunteer Corps
and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program as the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program
(RSVP).
Lowers eligibility age for participation in the RSVP program to 55.
Clarifies that Foster Grandparents may work with children with special and
exceptional needs in Head Start programs, schools, and day care centers.
Provides for a new demonstration authority to enrich and strengthen older American
volunteer programs across the country.
Eliminates restrictions that limit the flexibility to administer the program.
Increases the stipend for low-income Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions
once over the next five years to account for inflation.
Administration
Encourages relationships between ACTION and other federal agencies where ACTION
volunteers might help further the purposes of other Federal programs.
Authorizes a Center for Research and Training on Volunteerism to strengthen
volunteer programs across the country.
Provides a technical amendment to restore the crediting of VISTA service for federal
pensions.
Provides copyright protection for the programs authorized under the Act.
9