A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

I'm so glad to be here in Canton to talk about GEAR UP during National College Week. Actually, when my staff told me I was coming to Canton, I half thought I was getting some recognition for my high school football exploits from the Football Hall of Fame, but then, I realized I should think better of the idea.

This is National College Week, which is a growing effort to make sure that many more young people are ready for and thinking hard about college. Here in Ohio, several universities are participating in this national effort - Kent State, Ohio State University, Walsh University, Central State University and Central Ohio Technical College. I am sure that there are others too.

Our message to the young people of Ohio is that getting ready for college pays off. This is the title of our national college week report that I am releasing today - Getting Ready Pays Off.

This report says that we have more young people in our nation's colleges than ever before - over 15 million. However, many more parents want their children to go to college. As well, more middle school and high school students want to go to college. The report also tells us that more students are taking the challenging courses that they need to take to get ready for college. Yet, many students who want to go to college don't start preparing early enough. Middle school needs to be a key starting point.

The report also makes the very important point that going to college makes a real difference when it comes to bringing home a paycheck. On average, a college graduate makes more than a high school graduate and twice as much as a high school dropout. I also want to promise all of the students here that if they work hard to get ready for college, we will make sure that the financial aid is available so that you can go to college.

There is no reason for any of you to give up your dream of going on to college because you think that your family can't afford it. We will be there to help you. Federal financial aid has increased by almost 70 percent in the last decade.

And I hope that the Congress will soon pass our proposal to make it possible have up to $10,000 in college tuition be tax- deductible, just like the interest on home mortgages. Working and middle class families need this type of help. This is an idea that President Clinton, Vice President Gore and I have been working on for some time.

Finally, I want to encourage all the students who are participating in GEAR UP to stay with it. Our goal is to have students stay in the program for six or more years so they can stay on track and make their college dreams a reality. Research shows that students who take challenging courses in middle school are much more likely to succeed in high school and then go on to college.

Over 1,000 organizations are GEAR UP partners, including many of our nation's finest colleges and universities and even large corporations such as Wal-Mart and Unisys. The program is currently serving over 700,000 students and we hope many more will get the chance to participate.

This is why President Clinton has requested $325 million from the Congress for FY 2001 so that a total of 1.3 million children can reap the opportunities GEAR UP makes available. GEAR UP is such a popular and successful initiative that more than 100 college presidents from across the country wrote to President Clinton in September to request more funding for the program.

Unfortunately, Congress seems reluctant right now to increase support for GEAR UP and I think that is very shortsighted. There are thousands and thousands of young people all across this country who could benefit from being in a program just like this one, one that brings the entire community together to help young people get ready for college.

I'd now like to close with something Plato said that I think applies to our desire to make higher education available to all of our children. "That which is honored in a country is that which will be cultivated there." Let's do our best to continue to cultivate a nation where a college education is available to all. Thank you.