Clinton urges investing in people

"Government cannot do this alone, but business cannot be expected to go it alone," Clinton said. "We can build one America where nobody is left behind when we cross that bridge into a new century -- and when we do, we'll all be better off."

Launched in 1982 by Citigroup chief Sanford Weill, the National Academy Foundation announced an $8 million initiative Thursday to create "Information Technology Academies" to begin training low-income boys and girls for careers in the high-technology industry.

An estimated 4 million people in the United States ages 16 to 24 are out of school and lack a high school diploma. Clinton argued that the best way to ensure continued economic growth was to invest in them and the areas where they live.

During visits this week to a Kentucky coal-mining town, the Mississippi Delta, East St. Louis, Ill., a South Dakota Indian reservation, the Latino community of Phoenix and the riot-scarred neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, Clinton called for public and private investment in areas that haven't shared in the booming economy.

But on the fourth day of the tour, which he called a "remarkable ride," the president focused on investing in the people -- not just the industry and infrastructure -- in the nation's impoverished communities.

"Money is a big issue," he said. "But there's another kind of capital that in some ways is even more fundamental - human capital."

The conference stop in Anaheim closed out Clinton's tour, but he will remain in Los Angeles through Saturday to watch the U.S. women's soccer team compete for the World Cup.

Youth opportunity movement
Another highlight of Thursday's events was Clinton's announcement of a Youth Opportunity Movement, which includes a commitment by companies to hire graduates of a new $250 million federal training program for disadvantaged youth.

Approved by Congress, the program helps youth who have "gotten off the path a little bit," such as gang members, said Gene Sperling, head of the White House National Economic Council.

The movement is a larger umbrella coalition through which corporations pledge jobs for young people completing training programs, foundations provide training grants and celebrities encourage people to help and participate.

Clinton's focus comes just as a federal report was released Thursday showing that the disparity between whites and minorities who own computers and use the Internet is growing significantly toward a "racial ravine," in many cases even after accounting for differences in income. On Wednesday, while visiting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Clinton also stressed what he saw as the opportunity offered by technology.

Clinton said the Internet in particular was making it possible for communities to become part of the world economy. "I want implore you," he said, "to use your tribal college" to learn those skills.

L.A. agenda
Among those joining Clinton during his tour of Watts on Wednesday was Magic Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers star who has helped revitalize South Central L.A. and other inner cities with multiplex movie theaters.

Clinton toured the transportation technology program at Alain Leroy Locke High School, named for the first black Rhodes scholar. He watched as Michael Delery, 17, and Jermaine Smith, 18, used computers to show how aerodynamics affects the performance of a car.

Stephen Ramirez, 18, said he wants his year and a half in the tech program to lead to a career in transportation technology - after a stint in the Army now that he's graduated. "This program really gave me an opportunity to expand my horizons. Before, I had no idea what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be," he said.

Jobs and training
After his visit to Watts, Clinton appealed to business executives to act in their own self-interest by keeping the economy growing through jobs and training for poor Americans.

That growth can continue, Clinton argued, if business creates new workers and new consumers in the poorest areas of America. "Every time we hire a young person off the streets in Watts, we are helping people who live in the ritziest suburbs in America to continue to enjoy a rising stock market," he said.

The president also emphasized that many of those jobs need to be in high-tech areas.

After citing several high schoolers he'd seen Thursday learning those "high premium" skills, Clinton said that "we can create a lot of jobs ... but if our young people don't have the opportunity to learn" then much of that investment will be wasted.

Positive signs
The president said he saw a changed South Central Los Angeles. After the 1992 riots from the Rodney King beating verdicts, banks and federal redevelopment programs have made millions of dollars in loans and grants to local businesses, and many damaged areas have been rebuilt.

And while residents welcome the government's help, there is a thriving spirit of free-enterprise and self-reliance. The Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall, boosted by Magic Johnson's movie theater and its proximity to affluent black neighborhoods, is booming with an occupancy rate of more than 90 percent.

In other areas, retailers have opened new stores. Three banks, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and Hawthorne Savings, partnered with Operation Hope to open banking centers where residents can apply for loans and take classes on managing their finances.

Latino focus in Phoenix
The president flew to Los Angeles from Phoenix, where he toured the facilities of La Canasta, a successful food producer, to highlight the needs and the potential of the Latino community on that city's south side.

"Our country has been really blessed by these good economic times," Clinton said. "But we know, as blessed as America has been, not every American has been blessed by this recovery. All you have to do is drive down the streets of South Phoenix to see that."

Earlier Wednesday, Clinton toured Pine Ridge, visiting one of its poorest neighborhoods as well as a new development funded with federal dollars.

Speaking to tribal members, Clinton said he was told he was the first president to go to a reservation for a "nation-to-nation business meeting" and that no president had been to a reservation at all since 1936, when Franklin Roosevelt paid an unofficial call at a Cherokee reservation in North Carolina on his way to vacation.

"That is wrong, and we're trying to fix it today," he said, referring to his trip, which included signing a pact making Pine Ridge the first reservation to receive "empowerment zone" investment incentives.

'New markets' & Net potential
As with his other stops on his tour, Clinton sought to show America the poverty that still exists here, but also the potential of communities like Pine Ridge as "new markets" for investors - especially if that potential is backed by federal incentives like loan guarantees to business. Clinton's "new markets" legislation, which will go to Congress later this month, would provide domestic investors the same tax credits and loan guarantees already provided to investors in emerging economies overseas.

The tax credit, which would be given for up to 25 percent of the money a firm invests, was estimated to generate $6 billion in new equity capital. It would cost the federal government about $980 million over five years.

Overall in the United States, 13.3 percent of Americans lived in poverty in 1997, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The rate was 13.5 percent in 1990 and 15.1 percent in 1993, Clinton's first year in office.

The White House is providing additional background on its Web site at www.whitehouse.gov.