Clinton Announces Kids’ Reading Plan

As he prepared to attend today’s national summit on volunteerism, President Clinton on Saturday unveiled a $2.75 billion program aimed at mobilizing a million Americans to pick up a book and teach a child to read.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton said he would send to Congress on Monday a five-year plan that would pay for 25,000 reading specialists and tutor coordinators to lead the massive volunteer effort.

“All of us can help,” said Clinton, urging potential volunteers to call 1-800-USA-LEARN. “All you have to do is roll up your sleeves, sit with a child and open a book together. Remember, you’ll be doing more than just reading. You’ll be writing an exciting new chapter in America’s progress.”

Clinton announced the reading initiative last summer, but the details were not available until Saturday. The program, with a price of $460 million in the 1998 fiscal year, would attempt to provide reading help before and after school to 3 million children in 20,000 schools.

To show the depth of the need, the White House noted that 40 percent of fourth-graders scored below the basic level on the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress.