The White House at Work



Thursday, April 10, 1997
Reducing Welfare Rolls / Raising Educational Standards


TODAY: NATIONAL GOVERNMENT SETS EXAMPLE BY HIRING 
PEOPLE OFF WELFARE ROLLS
Today at the White House, the President holds a special Cabinet meeting to receive each agency's specific plans to hire people off the welfare rolls.

The President reports that over the past four years, America's welfare rolls declined by 2.8 million. Welfare rolls have now declined by more in the past four years than they increased in the first twenty-five years of the program.

The President announces that the federal government will hire 10,000 welfare recipients over the next four years, and urge private contractors that work with the government to hire people off welfare.

The President will convene a meeting of business leaders at the White House next month to discuss private sector efforts to hire welfare recipients, and Betsy Myers, White House Director of Women's Outreach, moves to the Small Business Administration to lead a new effort to encourage small and women-owned businesses to hire people off welfare.

WEDNESDAY: PRESIDENT HONORS AL SHANKER, CALLS FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION STANDARDS
At memorial service for former American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker:

The President creates Shanker Fellowships, renaming USIA program that sends American teachers abroad and brings foreign teachers to America to support the development of democracy.

The President honors Shanker's commitment to the highest standards for teachers, students and schools, and says: "In 1999, when the first 4th graders take the reading exam and the first 8th graders take the math exam, they, too, will be part of Al Shanker's legacy."

FRIDAY: PRESIDENT GIVES MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY ADDRESS
In a major foreign policy speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the President will offer his vision of American leadership in the 21st Century, and the need for a strong American role in the global economy.



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