In particular, I challenge the fathers of this country to love and care for their children.  If your family has separated, you must pay your child support.  We’re doing more than ever to make sure you do, and we’re going to do more, but let’s all admit something about that, too:  A check will not substitute for a parent’s love and guidance.  And only you—­only you can make the decision to help raise your children.  No matter who you are, how low or high your station in life, it is the most basic human duty of every American to do that job to the best of his or her ability.

Education

Our second challenge is to provide Americans with the educational opportunities we will all need for this new century.  In our schools, every classroom in America must be connected to the information superhighway, with computers and good software, and well-trained teachers.  We are working with the telecommunications industry, educators and parents to connect 20 percent of California’s classrooms by this spring, and every classroom and every library in the entire United States by the year 2000.  I ask Congress to support this education technology initiative so that we can make sure this national partnership succeeds.

Every diploma ought to mean something.  I challenge every community, every school and every state to adopt national standards of excellence; to measure whether schools are meeting those standards; to cut bureaucratic red tape so that schools and teachers have more flexibility for grass-roots reform; and to hold them accountable for results.  That’s what our Goals 2000 initiative is all about.

I challenge every state to give all parents the right to choose which public school their children will attend; and to let teachers form new schools with a charter they can keep only if they do a good job.

I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship.  And if it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms.

I challenge our parents to become their children’s first teachers.  Turn off the TV.  See that the homework is done.  And visit your children’s classroom.  No program, no teacher, no one else can do that for you.

My fellow Americans, higher education is more important today than ever before.  We’ve created a new student loan program that’s made it easier to borrow and repay those loans, and we have dramatically cut the student loan default rate.  That’s something we should all be proud of, because it was unconscionably high just a few years ago.  Through AmeriCorps, our national service program, this year 25,000 young people will earn college money by serving their local communities to improve the lives of their friends and neighbors.  These initiatives are right for America and we should keep them going.