Clinton Challenges Congress, Calls for Education Crusade

President Clinton, warning that inaction “is the enemy,” appealed Tuesday night for a national crusade to elevate the standards of schools and asked Congress to be his partner in completing the “unfinished business” of welfare, the budget and campaign finance reform.

In an optimistic, straightforward State of the Union address, Clinton spoke emphatically about the importance of education and proposed testing all fourth-graders and eighth-graders to ensure they get the skills they need to prosper in the global economy.

“The people of this nation elected us all. They want us to be partners, not partisans,” Clinton declared inside the Republican-led House chamber that was a hotbed of opposition to his plans during much of 1995 and 1996.

“They put us all here in the same boat. They gave us all oars. And they told us to row. Here’s the direction I think we should take,” the president said.

Balancing the budget topped Clinton’s priority list, and he said that Congress has a “historic opportunity” to achieve that goal. He also challenged Congress to approve sweeping campaign finance reforms by July 4 and to restore aid to immigrants that was slashed in a welfare bill last year.

The president sought a get-down-to-business tone in his hour-long remarks, spotlighting progress in the economy and such social barometers as crime, while outlining a series of proposals that he said are needed to help the nation prosper in coming years.

“We are winning back our basic optimism,” the president declared early on as he set forth a “call to action” on fronts ranging from health care to schools to foreign policy:

* School districts, he said, should cooperate with new, voluntary national tests that the Education Department will develop and he asked for a nonpartisan commitment to his education standards crusade. Politics, he said, “must stop at the schoolhouse door,” a declaration that was greeted with enthusiastic applause.

* Private employers, he said, should help hire welfare beneficiaries as part of the quest to transform the system. “And I say especially to every employer in this country who has ever criticized the old welfare system: You cannot blame that old system anymore. We have torn it down,” he said, his voice rising. “Now do your part. Give someone on welfare the chance to work.”

* Congress, he maintained, should help him broaden health care benefits, citing as examples improved coverage of children and a guaranteed 48-hour hospital stay for a woman after a mastectomy.

* Clinton appealed for an active, international U.S. role featuring a deeper dialogue with China and encouraging a partnership between an expanded North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a democratic Russia.

* He explicitly rejected the GOP push for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget but pledged that his spending plan would reach the same end, declaring: “We don’t need a constitutional amendment. We need action.”

* And he reiterated that diversity is America’s strength, declaring that “our world leadership grows out of the power of our example here at home.”

The president also sought to highlight the importance of technology, noting that this was the first State of the Union speech carried live on the Internet, affirming America’s commitment to exploring space and conducting medical research.

Clinton followed his prepared text very closely, exhibiting a more disciplined approach to the highly visible address than he has at times in the past. He also followed established themes that helped propel him through the campaign, briefly departing from the policy agenda for a more sermon-like approach. The address was received warmly, with lawmakers punctuating his remarks with applause 69 times.

As he did during his inaugural address, in which national reconciliation was an overarching theme, Clinton cited Isaiah, pointing to the words that “thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach.” In attendance was the Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor of Orange County’s Crystal Cathedral. Clinton said that Schuller had suggested that he review the passage before his inaugural.

Yet he also articulated more pragmatic themes, winning applause for his remark that one reason he was given a second term was to “make the tough decisions” on such issues as Medicare and Social Security and “to support all of you, regardless of party.”

Rather than emphasizing the partisan realities that could imperil his agenda, the president cited the dangers of apathy and seemed keenly aware of the limited time he has left to leave a mark on the White House:

“We face no imminent threat but we do have an enemy. The enemy of our time is inaction.” Near the end of his speech, he added: “We don’t have a moment to waste.”

Indeed, the absence of the Soviet threat and the end of the Cold War was an implicit and explicit theme of Clinton’s remarks and his attempt to sketch a vision of America’s role on the global stage.

“To prepare America for the 21st century, we must master the forces of change in the world and keep American leadership strong and sure for an uncharted time.”

Education

Topping the president’s education agenda was a “challenge to the nation” to adopt high national standards for schoolchildren and test each fourth-grader in reading and each eighth-grader in math.

“Raising standards will not be easy and some of our children will not be able to meet them at first,” Clinton said. “The point is not to put our children down but to lift them up.”

Under the proposal, the federal government would pay to develop the tests by 1999 and provide school districts with funding to administer the tests, which would be voluntary, according to Franklin Raines, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

To help illustrate his support for high standards and testing, Clinton invited Kristin Tanner and Chris Getsla, two eighth-grade students from Northbrook, Ill., to hear his address. The students, whom he met during a trip last month, were part of a group that took the Third International Math and Science Study and tied for first in the world in science and came in second in math.

“They prove that when we aim high and challenge our students, they will be the best in the world,” Clinton said.

The testing proposal is the newest element of a 10-step plan that Clinton referred to as a “call to action for American education.”

Budget Plan

Clinton’s call for balancing the federal budget by the year 2002 was intended to set the stage for his fiscal 1998 budget proposals, which he is scheduled to unveil and send to Capitol Hill on Thursday.

The Clinton budget is expected to propose eliminating the current $107-billion deficit within five years, while providing tax cuts for middle-income Americans and additional spending for education and the environment.

The president coupled his plea with an appeal to Republicans to abandon their current proposal for a constitutional amendment that would require the government to balance the budget each year.

“Balancing the budget requires only your vote and my signature--it does not require us to rewrite our Constitution,” Clinton said.

Clinton endorsed the bipartisan campaign finance reform bill co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), which would ban contributions by noncitizens and corporations.

He challenged lawmakers to pass the measure by July 4, noting that its enactment would “renew our democracy” by giving new vitality to the political process. “Delay will mean the death of reform,” he said.

Building on his focus on education, Clinton said that as the 21st century nears, “we must build stronger families.”

He called for expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives workers time off from their jobs to care for ailing relatives, parent-teacher conferences and children’s medical appointments. Endorsing a program favored by many employers, he said that workers should have a choice of time off or pay as reimbursement for overtime.

The president gave only passing mention to the health care issues that dogged his first two years in office. He said that his budget would help workers maintain health insurance coverage when they are temporarily unemployed.

He urged support for legislation which would guarantee that women will be allowed to remain in hospitals for 48 hours after undergoing mastectomies. He called for legislation to make it a felony for parents to cross state lines to avoid making child support payments.

Foreign Policy

On foreign policy, Clinton set the stage for a confrontation with congressional Republicans by challenging lawmakers to pay Washington’s debts to the United Nations and other world organizations, to reverse the steady decline in State Department spending and to ratify a stalled treaty to outlaw chemical weapons. Key Republicans, such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms of North Carolina, oppose each of those steps.

“If America is to continue to lead the world, we here who lead America simply must find the will to pay our way,” the president said.

Spending on foreign aid and diplomacy, if adjusted to discount the effects of inflation, has declined by about half since 1985. The United States is more than $1 billion behind in its dues to the United Nations.

“Every dollar we devote to preventing conflicts, to promoting democracy, to stopping the spread of disease and starvation, brings a sure return in security and savings,” Clinton said.

Clinton described as “a new test of leadership” his call for ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which his administration withdrew from the Senate last fall when it appeared to be headed for defeat.

“We have no more important obligations” than approval of the treaty, which will go into force April 29 whether Washington ratifies it or not. Clinton said that failure to ratify by the effective date will deny the United States a seat on the panel that enforces the pact and will bar U.S. chemical exports from much of the world market.

The president renewed his call for NATO expansion and for increased U.S. engagement with countries in east Asia, measures that have long been on his agenda. He defended the U.S. dialogue with China despite Beijing’s dismal human rights record.

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, Norman Kempster, Art Pine and Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story.

* GOP RESPONSE: Rep. J.C. Watts says Washington is not nation’s strength. A13

* SPEECH EXCERPTS: A13