Progress By the Numbers

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Progress By the Numbers Improving the Quality of Life for America's Working Families Improving the Quality of Life for America's Working Families
Clinton-Gore Administration Accomplishments
Progress By The Numbers

Jobs & The Economy:
Jobs	22.2 million new jobs created since 1993 -- the most jobs ever created under a single Administration,administration, and more jobs than Presidents Reagan and Bush created during their three terms. Under President Clinton, the economy has added an average of 245,000248,000 jobs per month, the highest of any President on record. This compares to 52,000 per month under President Bush and 167,000 per month under President Reagan. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]
Unemployment	Down from 7.5 percent in 1992 to 3.9 percent in September, the lowest in more than three decades. The unemployment rate has fallen for seven years in a row, and has remained below 5 percent for 37 months in a row -- over three full years. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]
Income	Median family income has increased from $42,612 in 1993 to $48,950 in 1999 - an $6,338 increase. In contrast, median family income fell from $44,354 in 1988 to $42,490 in 1992. [Census Bureau, Money Income in the United States: 1999, 9/26/00]
Wages	Real wages have risen 6.66.5 percent since 1993, compared to declining 4.3 percent during the Reagan and Bush years. Real wage growth in 1998 reached 2.6 percent -- the largest increase since 1972. Wages have increased five years in a row -- the longest consecutive increase since the 1960s. In the last 12 months, average hourly earnings have sustained growth since the early 1970s.increased 3.8 percent -- faster than the rate of inflation. [National Economic Council, 1/7/00]6/00]
Tax Cuts	15 million additional working families receive additional tax relief through the President's expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. In 1999, the EITC lifted 4.1 million out of poverty -- nearly double the number who were removed from poverty in 1993. Over half of the people removed from poverty by the EITC (2.3 million) were children under the age of 18. [National Economic Council, 9/26/00]
$500 per-child tax credit	27 million families with 45 million children receive the $500 per-child tax credit. [Treasury Department]
Minimum Wage	10 million Americans received an increase in wages thanks to the President's leadership in raising the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 per hour. [Good News for Low Income Families: Expansions in the EITC and Minimum Wage, CEA, 12/98]
New Businesses	More than 5.9 million new businesses have been created since 1993. [Small Business Administration, 1/00]
National Debt	Paid off $360 billion of the national debt over three years, and public debt is on track to be $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. There is $25,000 less debt for each family of four than in 1993. With the President's plan, we are on track to eliminate the nation's publicly held debt by at least 2012. [Presidential Statement, 7/31/00]
Home Ownership	Reached 67.2 percent in the second quarter of 2000 -- the highest ever recorded. Minority homeownership rates were also the highest ever recorded. In contrast, the homeownership rate fell from 65.6 percent in the first quarter of 1981 to 63.7 percent in the first quarter of 1993. [Bureau of the Census, 9/28/99][Census Bureau, 7/26/00]
Expanding Educational Opportunity: Elementary and Secondary Schools
Teachers	Nearly 30,000 new, well-prepared teachers were hired for fall 1999 with funds from the first down payment on the President's seven-year plan to reduce class size by hiring 100,000 teachers. [Education Department, Local Success Stories - Reducing Class Size, 11/99]
After School Programs	850,000 school-age children in rural and urban communities will have safe and educational after-school opportunities in 2000 because of the expanded 21st Century Community Learning Centers program -- 375,000 more than last year. [Education Department]
Education Technology	30 million children and up to 47,000 schools and libraries are being connected to the Internet though the E-rate. In the fall of 1998, 891999, 95 percent of public schools were connected to the Internet. In 1994, just 35 percent were connected. Internet -- up from 35 percent in 1994. In 1999, 63 percent of all public school classrooms were connected to the Internet -- up from 3 percent in 1994. [FY 2000 Budget, p. 67; National Center for Education Statistics, Issue Brief NCES 99-017, 2/99]Stats in Brief NCES 2000-086, 2/00]
Title I	1111 million low-income students in 13,000 school districts now benefit from higher expectations and a challenging curriculum geared to higher standards. And through better targeting of federal funds, Title I funds now reach 95 percent of highest poverty schools, up from 79 percent in 1993-94. [Education Department, Challenging the Status Quo: The Education Record, 1993-2000, 4/00] [Statement of the Secretary of Education before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, 2/9/99]
Charter Schools	Increased the number of charter schools from one in 1993 to 1,7002,000 today. More than 250,000 students nationwide are now enrolled in charter schools in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Won $145 million in the FY00 budget, to provide startup funding to as many as 2,400 charter schools. Charter schools help expand choice and accountability in public schools. [Education Department, 8/28/99; White House at Work, 2/11/00]
America Reads Challenge	1,400 colleges and universities joined the President's America Reads Challenge, and 26,700 college work-study students now serve as reading tutors to help every child to read well and independently by the third grade. [Education Department, Challenging the Status Quo: The Education Record, 1993-2000, 4/00]
Mentoring	Won a 67 percent funding increase so that 482,000 middle school students will be prepared for college this year through expanded mentoring efforts as part of GEAR UP. [Education Department]
School-To-Work	516,000 high school students and nearly 178,000 employers participated in school-to-work programs in 1998. [Progress Measures Report, 1999, MPR Associates, National School-to-Work Office, Education Department]
Scores Are Up	Since 1992, average SAT scores have increased by 15 points. In 1998, students posted the highest math scores in 27 years on the SAT. And the number of high school students taking Advanced Placement exams tripled between 1984 and 1997. [College Board, 9/1/98; Center on Education Policy, Do You Know…The Good News About American Education?]
Expanding Educational Opportunity: Postsecondary Education and Training

Tuition Tax Credits	In 1999, an estimated 10 million American families claimed the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits to help pay for college.
Pell Grants	3.9 million low-income students will receive a Pell Grant award to help them attend college. In the FY00 budget, the President increased the maximum Pell Grant award from $3,000 to $3,300 -- the largest maximum award ever. The maximum award has increased 43 percent since 1993. [Office of Student Financial Assistance, Department of Education: Interim Performance Objectives, Final Report FY99]
Direct Loan Program	More than 5 million student and parent borrowers have received direct loans since the program began.
Reduced Loan Fees	Since 1993, students have saved $8.7 billion through lower student loan fees and interest rates. [Department of Education, Statement by Secretary Riley, 10/5/99]
Student Loan Default Rate Declines	The student loan default rate declined from 22.4 percent in 1990 to 6.9 percent today, the lowest rate ever. Collections on defaulted student loans have tripled, from $1 billion in 1993 to $4 billion last year. [Education Department Press Release, 10/2/00]
AmeriCorps	More than 150,000 volunteers have earned money for college by serving their communities and their country in the AmeriCorps program since the program began in 1994. [Corporation for National Service, Press Release, 10/16/99]
Work Study	One million students will be able to work their way through college this year thanks to the President's expansion of the Work Study Program. [Office of Student Financial Assistance, Department of Education: Interim Performance Objectives, Final Report FY99]
College Enrollment Up	67 percent of high school graduates went on to college in 1998, compared to 62 percent in 1992. The percentage of African American high school graduates enrolling in college increased from 48 percent in 1992 to 59 percent in 1997 -- the highest number ever.
Retrained Workers	An estimated 836,000 American workers will benefit this year from the dislocated worker program. President Clinton won a $190 million increase in FY 2000, bringing the total investment to $1.6 billion and allowing the program to serve more than three times as many dislocated workers.
Crime and Public Safety
Declining Crime Rates	Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. The overall crime rate is the lowest in 25 years, and in 1999 crime fell for the eighth consecutive year nationwide. Violent crime rate fell 7 percent in 1999 and 27 percent since 1993. Since 1993, the murder rate is down more than 25 percent to its lowest point since 1967, and gun violence has declined by more than 35 percent. [Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998 National Crime Victimization Survey; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1998, 1999; FY 2001 Budget, p. 107]
Juvenile Arrests Down	In 1998, the nation saw an 8 percent drop in the juvenile violent crime arrests. [FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1998]
Community Policing	Reached the President's goal of funding 100,000 more community police officers for our streets in May 1999 -- ahead of schedule and under budget. President Clinton won funding in the FY00 budget to begin hiring an additional 50,000 officers by 2005. [Justice Department, COPS program, 5/12/99]
Brady Bill	More than 470,000536,000 felons, fugitives and stalkers have been stopped from buying guns since the Brady Law was enacted. [Bureau of Justice Statistics, Background Checks for Firearm Transfers, 1999, 6/00]
Improving Officer Safety	In its first year, the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act helped state and local law enforcement purchase 92,500 bulletproof vests. [White House Fact Sheet, 5/15/00]
"Zero-Tolerance" for Guns In Schools	Over 13,500 students have been expelled from public schools for bringing weapons to school under zero tolerance policies established by the Gun Free Schools Act, which was passed in 1994. [Dept. of Education, Report on State Implementation of the Gun-Free Schools Act, 1998-99]
Domestic Violence Hotline	More than 458,000 calls have been received by the nationwide, 24-hour domestic violence hotline President Clinton established. [Domestic Violence Hotline, Semi-Annual Program Report, 10/1/99-3/31/00]
Strengthening Families
Family & Medical Leave	Nearly 91 million workers are covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act -- 71 percent of the American labor force. Millions of Americans have taken job-protected leave. [Five Years of Success: Report on FMLA, Department of Labor, 8/98 (updated number provided 7/99)]
Welfare to Work	7.8 million fewer people are receiving welfare benefits today than in 1993, a 56 percent decrease. The percentage of Americans on welfare is the lowest since 1965, and millions of Americans have moved from welfare to work -- 1.3 million in 1998 alone. The percentage of adults on welfare who were working reached an all-time high of 33 percent in 1999, nearly five times the percent in 1992. [HHS Press Release, 8/22/00]
Head Start	Head Start will reach a total of 880,000 children in FY 2000 and will serve one million children and their families by the year 2002. The President and Vice President have expanded Head Start funding by 90 percent since 1993. [Head Start Fact Sheet; Administration of Children and Families, HHS; 1/99]
Child Care	Child care funding has increased by 80 percentmore than doubled under the Clinton-Gore Administration, helping parents pay for the care ofmore than one million children. An average of 1.25 million children were served by states under the child care block grant in FY 1997 -- a 25 percent increase from the estimated 1 million children served in FY 1996. The 1996 welfare1.5 million children and the1996 welfare reform law increased child care funding by $4 billion over six years to provide child care assistance to families moving from welfare to years. [FY 2000work. [FY 2001 Budget, p. 76]59]
Child Poverty	The child poverty rate has dropped from 22.7 percent in 1993 to 16.9 percent in 1999 -- the biggest six-year drop in nearly 30 years, and the lowest child poverty rate since 1979. [Census Bureau, Poverty in the United States: 1999, 9/26/00]
Increasing Adoptions	In 1999, 46,000 foster care children were adopted – more than a 64 percent increase since 1996 and well on the way to meeting the President's goal of doubling the number of adoptions from 28,000 in 1996 to 56,000 by 2002. [HHS Press Release, 9/20/00]
Teen Pregnancy	The teen birth rate has fallen eight years in a row, dropping by 20 percent from 1991 to 1999 to the lowest rate ever recorded in the 60 years this data has been collected. The teen pregnancy rate is also at a record low. [Centers for Disease Control, National Vital Statistics Report, 8/08/00]
Child Abuse	Child abuse has declined for five years in a row, down approximately 11 percent from a record 1,018,692 in 1993. [HHS Press Release, 4/10/00]
Child Support Collections	Federal and state child support programs broke new records, nearly doubling records in 1999, collecting nearly $16 billion -- doublethe amount collected in 1992. The number of child support cases with collections more than doubled during the Clinton Administration, from 2.8 million in 1992 to 4.5 million in 1999. [Child Support Enforcement FY 1999 Preliminary Data Report, 10/00] support payments -- more than double the number found during the previous year. [HHS]
Improving Our Nation's Health
Patients' Bill of Rights	85 million people covered by Federal health plans, and Medicare and Medicaid, received patient protections -- protections included in the President's Patients' Bill of Rights -- thanks to executive action taken by President Clinton. [FY 2000 Budget, p. 85]
More Americans Have Health Insurance	From 1998 to 1999, the number of Americans with health insurance rose by 1.7 million -- two-thirds of them children. This is the first decline in the number of uninsured in 12 years. [Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage: 1999, 9/28/00]
Health Insurance Reform	As many as 25 million people will benefit from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which helps millions of Americans who move from one job to another, are self-employed, or have pre-existing medical conditions keep their health insurance. [FY 2000 Budget, p. 83]
Eliminating Fraud	Health care convictions have increased 80 percent since 1992, saving more than $500 billion in health care claims thanks to the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. Since 1993, the Administration has assigned more federal prosecutors and FBI agents to fight health care fraud than ever before. [HHS Fact Sheet, 2/22/00]
Children's Health Care	As many as 5 million more children will receive health insurance under President Clinton's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). As of June 2000, approximately 2.5 million children were enrolled in SCHIP. [White House Fact Sheet, 1/11/00, 9/29/00]
Infant Mortality	There has been a 15.2 percent decrease in the infant mortality rate -- to the lowest level in history -- from 8.5 in 1992 to 7.2 in 1997. [America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, NIH, 7/8/99]
Immunization	Childhood immunization coverage rates in 1998 were the highest ever recorded. Over 90 percent of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998. With childhood vaccination levels at an all-time high, disease and death from diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella and Hib are at or near record lows. [HHS Fact Sheet, 9/23/99, 12/31/99]
WIC	7.3 million women, infants, and children -- 1.4 million more than in 1993 -- have access to health care, supplemental foods, nutrition and breastfeeding education thanks to WIC. [Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, 9/99]
Biomedical Research	Two years ago, the President called for an increase of almost 50 percent over 5 years in the NIH budget as part of his Research for America Fund. Since then, the NIH budget has increased by over $4.3 billion and with the funding proposed by the President this year, the Administration will be one year ahead of schedule in reaching the 50 percent goal. [Domestic Policy Council]
Food Safety	Two years after President Clinton's meat and poultry inspection system went into place, the number of Americans stricken by the most common forms of foodborne illness has declined by almost 20 percent. Overall, 855,000 fewer Americans became ill from bacteria in their food in 1999 than two years before. [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]
Government That Works Better
Reinventing Government	The Vice President's National Performance Review recommended and Congress adopted savings of about $136 billion since 1993. [National Performance Review, Accomplishments fact sheet]
Smaller Government	There are 377,000 fewer employees in the Federal government workforce than in 1993 -- nearly a fifth -- giving us the smallest Federal workforce since 1960. [National Partnership for Reinventing Government, Accomplishments fact sheet; National Economic Council, 6/26/00]
Lower Government Spending	At 18.5 percent, Federal Government spending as a share of the Gross Domestic Product is at its lowest level since 1966. [National Economic Council, 6/26/00]
Motor Voter	28 million new voters registered to vote -- and voting was made easier for millions more Americans -- since 1995 because of the National Voter Registration Act. [FEC, 6/99; FEC, 6/97]
Environment
Toxic Waste Sites	Completed cleanup at more than 510530 Superfund sites, more than fourthree times as many as completed in the previous two Administrations.twelve years. Cleanup of more than 9091 percent of all sites either completed or in progress. The Administration's brownfields redevelopment initiative has leveraged over $2.3 billion in private sector investment and generated 6,400 jobs. [[Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund NPL Construction Completions Since 1/20/93 to 6/22/99]EPA, Construction Completions at National Priorities List Sites, as of 7/27/00; EPA, www.epa.gov, 8/24/00]
National Parks	The National Park System has increased by about 4.56 million acres during the Clinton-Gore Administration. The President has also created 13 new national park areas and has significantly expanded others, like Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks in California. [Protecting Our National Treasures, Department of Interior]
Preserving Our National Treasures	Protected tens of millions of acres, from the red rock canyons of Utah to the Florida Everglades. Reached historic agreements to protect Yellowstone from mining and save the ancient redwoods of California's Headwaters Forest. [Protecting Our National Treasures, Department of Interior]
Safe Drinking Water	Since 1993, 22.5 million more Americans receive drinking water that meets all federal health standards. Ninety-one percent of America's tap water from community drinking water systems meets all federal standards. [EPA, Summary of the 20002001 Budget, p. 30]33]
Clean Air	Since 1993, the number of Americans living in communities that meet federal air quality standards has grown by 43 million. [White House, Council on Environmental Quality, 5/1/99]
Encouraging Recycling	Americans recycle 22 million tons more material than in 1992 -- thanks to that effort, the United States will discard less waste in 2000 than in 1992. We recycle more of our municipal waste than any major country in the world. [White House, Council on Environmental Quality]
	1/00October 2000

A Nation Transformed

Progress By the Numbers

Supporting African Americans

Supporting Americans With Disabilities

Supporting Asian Pacific Americans

Working for Children and Families

Supporting America's Farmers and Rural Communities

Supporting Gay and Lesbian Americans

Supporting Hispanic Americans

Improving Mental Health

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Supporting America's Working Families

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