English subtitles for clip: File:Response to the Lewinsky Allegations (January 26, 1998) Bill Clinton.ogv

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Thank you very much. First, let me thank all of you who are here.

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Many of us have been working together now for 20 years on a lot of these issues,

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and this is a very happy day for us.

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I thank the First Lady for all she has done on this issue, for as long as I've known her.

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I thank the Vice President and Mrs. Gore for their family conference and the light

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it has shed on the announcement we're here to emphasize today.

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Thank you, Secretary Riley, for the community learning centers, and I'm very proud of what we've done there.

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Thank you, Bill White. I'll talk more about your contribution in a moment,

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but it is truly remarkable. And I thank Rand and Debra Bass for giving us a living,

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breathing example of the best of America—parents who are working hard to do their jobs,

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but also determined to do their most important job very well with their children.

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I thank Senator Feinstein, Senator Dodd, and Senator Boxer for being here.

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Tomorrow, in the State of the Union Address, I will spell out what we seek to do

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on behalf of our children to prepare them for the 21st century.

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But I want to talk a little bit about education today and about this announcement in that context.

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Education must be our Nation's highest priority. Last year, in the State of the Union Address,

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I set out a 10-point plan to move us forward and urged the American people to make sure

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that politics stops at the schoolhouse door. Well, we've made a lot of progress on that 10-point plan:

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a remarkable—a remarkable—array of initiatives to open the doors of college to every American

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who's willing to work for it; strong progress toward high national standards in the basics,

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the America Reads challenge to teach every 8-year-old to read; continued progress in

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the Vice President's program to hook up all of our classrooms and libraries to the Internet by the year 2000.

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This has been the most important year in a generation for education reform.

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Tomorrow I'll set out the next steps on our continuing road.

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First, I will propose the first-ever national effort to reduce class size in the early grades.

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My…

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Hillary and I worked very hard 15 years ago now to have very strict class sizes at home in the early grades,

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and it was quite controversial and I think enormously beneficial when we did it.

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Our balanced budget will help to hire 100,000 teachers who must pass State competency tests

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but who will be able to reduce class size in the first, second, and third grades to an average of 18 nationwide.

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Second, since there are more students and there will be more teachers, there must be more classrooms.

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So I will propose a school construction tax cut to help communities modernize and build new schools.

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Third, I will promote a national effort to help schools that follow the lead of the Chicago system

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in ending social promotion but helping students with summer school and other programs to give them

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the tools they need to get ahead.

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All these steps will help our children get the future they deserve.

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And that's why what we're announcing here is so important as well.

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Every child needs someplace to go after school. With after-school programs, we can not only keep

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our kids healthy and happy and safe, we can help to teach them to say no to drugs, alcohol, and crime,

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yes to reading, sports, and computers. My balanced budget plan includes a national initiative

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to spark private sector and local community efforts to provide after-school care,

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as the Secretary of Education said, to half a million more children.

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Now, let me say, in addition to all the positive benefits, I think it's important to point out

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that the hours between 3 and 7 at night are the most vulnerable hours for young people to get in trouble,

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for juvenile crime. There is this sort of assumption that everybody that gets in trouble when they're young

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has just already been abandoned. That's not true. Most of the kids that get in trouble get in trouble

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after school closes and before their parents get home from work. So in the adolescent years,

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in the later years, it is profoundly important to try to give kids something to say yes to

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and something positive to do.

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But we can't do it alone. As I said, our plan involves a public-private partnership.

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So it's been fallen to me to announce that our distinguished guest from the Mott Foundation

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of Flint, Michigan, has pledged up to $55 million to help ensure that after-school programs

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supported by Federal funds are of the highest quality. That is an astonishing gift.

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Thank you, Bill White. Thank you.

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We are determined to help Americans succeed in the workplace, to raise well-educated, healthy kids,

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and to help Americans succeed at the toughest job of all, that of being a parent.

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And the Mott Foundation has gone a long way toward helping us. I thank them.

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Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it

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until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people.

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I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again.

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I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

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I never told anybody to lie, not a single time—never. These allegations are false.

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And I need to go back to work for the American people.

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Thank you.