Text 2077, 812 rader
Skriven 2006-02-03 23:32:54 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0602036) for Fri, 2006 Feb 3
===================================================
===========================================================================
President Participates in American Competitiveness Panel in New Mexico
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 3, 2006

President Participates in American Competitiveness Panel in New Mexico
Intel New Mexico
Rio Rancho, New Mexico


˙˙˙˙˙American Competitiveness Initiative
˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Jobs and Economy

9:10 A.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the
Mexican food last night, Pete. (Laughter.) I hope you picked up the tab.
(Laughter.) Laura and I are thrilled to be here. This is going to be an
interesting discussion. What you'll watch is a way to talk about how to put
good policy in place, not only through my voice, but through the voices of
many who are living exactly the strategy that we want to implement for the
rest of the country.

So, first of all, I want to welcome my wife, Laura. We don't get to travel
that much --

MRS. BUSH: Together.

THE PRESIDENT: Together. (Applause.) We both we're raised in West Texas,
and occasionally slipped across the border to go in New Mexico. And every
time we did we were better for it. (Laughter.) It's a great state.

Do you want to have a few words?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I'm going to just speak and, as they say in the political
business, step off the message a little bit. George is going to be talking
today about what we can do to make sure our children are educated and our
economy is competitive. But I also just want to remind everyone that
earlier this week, he signed a proclamation to make February American Heart
Month. And a lot of people are wearing their red tie or their red dress.
I'm wearing my Red Dress pin today to remind the American people that heart
disease is the number one killer, it's the number one killer among women in
the United States.

A lot of women don't know that, and if they start to suffer the signs of a
heart attack or the symptoms of a heart attack, they wait. They don't go to
the emergency room like they might rush their husbands to the emergency
room, but they don't go themselves as fast.

So I want to encourage Americans to remember that heart disease is the
number one killer, to talk to people about all the ways we can prevent
heart disease through exercise, healthy eating, not smoking, seeing your
doctor on a regular basis so you can find out if you have any early signs
of heart disease.

The other thing that fits into the message that George is going to talk
about is, we know that if our children have the chance to study more math
and science, we'll have even more doctors, we can produce even more
doctors, and many, many more medical breakthroughs.

So, remember that February is National Heart Month, and take good care of
your heart. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Before we get started, I do want to recognize some folks.
Obviously, Senator Domenici is here. I know you are very proud of his
service in the United States Senate. What a good man he is. (Applause.) And
with him is Senator Bingaman, who is also doing a fine job.

What happened the other day was, I got a phone call from Domenici, and
generally when someone of that -- with that much power calls you, you say,
"Yes, sir, Mr. Senator." (Laughter.) And he said, I want to come by and I
want to bring Jeff Bingaman with me and Senator Alexander. And I said,
fine, come on over. And they come over the Oval Office and sit down and
say, look, at your State of the Union, we want you to seriously consider
announcing an agenda that we think is important to make this country
competitive. And I said, I'll consider it. One of the things you want to do
when you're the President is kind of keep your cards close to your vest.
(Laughter.) I said, "I'll give that serious consideration, Senator."

But I knew prior to him coming in that he had looked at the same report I
had seen, which is called the Augustine Report. Craig Barrett, who I'm
going to talk about here in a second, was on that committee. Chuck Vest --
I don't know if Chuck is with us, or not. We had dinner with Chuck last
night, as well as Augustine -- Norm Augustine, himself. But they're a group
of distinguished citizens and scholars and businesspeople who started
looking out beyond the immediate and asking the question, what does America
need to do to remain the preeminent economy in the world so our people can
have a good life? And they made some suggestions. And Jeff and Pete looked
at it, fine-tuned it, brought me some ideas. And at the State of the Union,
I talked about how to keep this country strong.

And want to give credit to the Senators. I also want to give credit to the
Senators after they get the deal done, too, see. (Laughter.) And so I want
to thank both Senators for being here.

I also want to thank the Congressman from this district, Tom Udall. Thank
you, Mr. Congressman, for joining us. Proud you're here. (Applause.) Two
other Congresspeople -- Heather Wilson -- thank you for coming, Heather,
appreciate you. And Steve Pearce from eastern New Mexico. (Applause.)

Is it Hobbs? Yes, Hobbs, that's right. (Laughter.) Flying Eagles. That's
the name of the basketball team. I do want to thank the Mayor, Jim Owen.
Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here. I appreciate you coming. You're kind
to take time out of your day. (Applause.)

Before I talk about the Intel family, I do want to recognize the Vice
President of the Navaho Nation, and his wife, Virginia -- and that would be
Frank Dayish. Frank is here. Good to see you again, Frank. (Applause.) The
reason I want to bring up Frank and Virginia is that their daughter, Staff
Sergeant Felissa Dayish, is with us. She has been to Iraq twice. Thank you
for serving. God bless. (Applause.) I remember the pride that Frank had
when he described his daughter's service to me. And I know you're doubly
proud, Frank. Thanks for being here -- proud you're here.

And finally, the Governor of the great state of New Mexico has joined us,
Governor Bill Richardson. Governor, thank you for being here. Good to see
you. (Applause.) I appreciate you coming. I know you're proud of the Intel
facility and the Intel family, as you should be.

One of the things we're going to talk about is the importance of research
and development and technology. And the people here in this part of the
world understand that when you have a research and development facility
that promotes modern technology, it improves the quality of the life of the
community in which the facility exists. And that has been, really, Craig
Barrett's credo as the CEO of this company. He wants to provide a product
that people want to buy, obviously -- otherwise, you're not going to be in
business. (Laughter.)

But he also understands in something called corporate responsibility. It's
in his interest that there be corporate responsibility in Intel. In other
words, Intel can only be strong if it has a workforce that's capable of
making sure this company is competitive in a global economy. And so I
really want to say thanks to Craig and all the employees here for doing the
following things -- besides making a good product and providing jobs -- to
provide people from this company to teach in local schools.

And if corporate CEO is paying attention to this little seminar, I strongly
urge you to follow the Intel example of making employees available to make
sure math and science becomes an important part of the curriculum of the
local schools. They provide internships for young students here to
encourage them to become involved with math and science. They help train
teachers. And we're going to talk a little bit about teacher training. And
then they provide scholarships.

And so for those of you who work here, thanks for being such -- so generous
with your knowledge and your talent. And, Craig, thanks for having us. It's
not easy to host the President here. It kind of disrupts -- (laughter) --
disrupt -- yes, I know. (Laughter.)

A couple of points I want to make, and the reason why this subject is
relevant, first, we've got a strong economy. Today you're going to see that
in January we added 193,000 new jobs, 81,000 new jobs -- extra jobs were
added as a result of upgrading the November and December numbers. And we
got steady growth. And that's important. We want our people working. We
want people to be able to realize opportunity and hope. And in order to do
that you got to have a growing economy, obviously.

And we've overcome a lot. I really ascribe that to mainly the
entrepreneurial spirit of America is strong, the small business sector is
strong. I do happen to think good tax policy helped. I think keeping taxes
low is an important way to make sure this economy continues to grow.
(Applause.)

But what's interesting about the numbers is that beneath that there's a
certain amount of uncertainty amongst some in America. Yes, we've got a lot
of competition, and people begin to see an emerging China, and India, and
that makes people uncertain. It creates certain anxiety when they hear the
stories about India and China beginning to grow robustly, or jobs going to
India and China, or India and China consuming a lot of natural resources.

Secondly, there's a lot of turnover in the job market. People are changing
jobs, and that creates uncertainty. And during times of uncertainty, we're
faced with certain choices. And there's a tendency throughout our history,
our economic history and foreign policy history, to withdraw. Times of
uncertainty sometimes encourage folks to say, well, why do we need to
compete? Why don't we just come within ourselves? Why don't we protect
ourselves off from the world? Why do we need to be trying to spread freedom
when the world is a dangerous place? Why don't we just come home?

And I strongly reject that notion. And I want to explain to you why. First
of all, with an enemy that lurks, if we were to withdraw it would only
embolden the enemy and make this country less secure. If we were to
withdraw from the world it would be a missed opportunity to lay the
foundation of peace for generations to come by spreading liberty and
freedom. See, part of my foreign policy is this: I believe that there is an
Almighty and I believe that the Almighty's gift to everybody on the face of
the Earth, regardless of where they live, regardless of their religion, is
freedom. And I believe deep in everybody's soul is the deep desire to live
in freedom. And I believe that this country, if it were to retreat, would
miss an opportunity to help others realize their dream. And I also know
that history has proven that free societies yield the peace that we all
want.

Secondly, when it comes to competition, the world is going to be
competitive whether we're in the mix, or not. For example, this competitive
world is going to demand a job skill set that emphasizes math and science,
which we'll talk about here in a second. And if our kids don't have the
talents necessary to compete, those jobs won't go away, they'll just go to
another country.

I mean, we're in a global competition. Here's my attitude: With the right
policy we can compete with anybody, any time, anywhere. This has been the
history of America, and it's going to be the future of America. We should
not fear the future because we intend to shape it.

The American -- this American economy leads the world, and we're going to
continue to lead it. And here's how: good fiscal policy out of Washington,
D.C.; making sure that this economy is flexible. In other words, when you
say that, that means there's not a lot of rules and regulations that
prohibit capital moving freely and people making investment.

We've got to have an energy policy that gets us off this dependence on
Middle Eastern oil. I spent a lot of time on that before; I'm going to
spend a little more time on it next week. But I'm going to tell you
something -- with research and development and technology, we can change
the fuels we put in our cars, and we can become less dependent on unstable
sources of energy overseas. And if we intend to be the leader of the world,
we've got to do that. It's a goal that can be achieved and it's a goal
that's necessary.

I've talked about health care -- and will continue -- in the past. I want
to talk about trade real quick, and then we're going to talk about the
education initiative. Our panelists are beginning to wonder -- (laughter.)
It's called a filibuster. (Laughter and applause.) First, let us talk about
trade. The first sign that the country is becoming protectionist is when we
refuse to ratify trade agreements. That's a sign. It's an indication that
the elected officials are beginning to get worried about the capacity of
this country to compete. It's hard to get trade agreements through
Congress, and I'm worried that that is an indication that we're losing our
confidence.

But if you're working at Intel, you better be for open trade, because 80
percent of the products this company makes are sold overseas. Yesterday we
were at 3M in Minnesota. It's a great United States company, very much like
Intel -- 60 percent of the products they manufacture are overseas -- sold
overseas. We're 5 percent of the world's population, which means the rest
of the 95 percent could be, and should be, customers to United States
products, either grown or manufactured.

Now, the role of the government, it seems like to me, is to not only open
up markets for our products, but at the same time, say to our competitors
and/or other markets, treat us the way we treat you. That's all we ask. In
other words, level the playing field. It is very important if this country
is to remain competitive that we do not lose our nerve, that we open up
markets for our products, that we level the playing field -- because nobody
can out-compete us when the rules are fair.

Now, let me talk about education. That's kind of the -- that's part of the
cornerstone of making us competitive, shaping our destiny, refusing to lose
our great desire to continue to lead. But perhaps the most important thing
of all is to make sure that we lead the world in innovation and
technological development, and make sure we have a workforce that has the
skill sets necessary to do so. And that's really the heart of the American
Competitive Initiative. And that's why we're here at Intel.

Again, I want to repeat to you, all the people who understand the
connection between technology and jobs ought to be the people in this part
of the world. I remember when this plant didn't exist -- and neither did
much of the neighborhood around it. I mean, one of the most exciting things
that's happened to the Albuquerque area is the arrival of Intel -- not only
because it's provided good jobs, but the spinoff of those jobs, the small
businesses that have occurred as a result of -- when this amazing center of
brilliance came here.

I want to talk about three things, and then we'll start visiting. Here's
some things, practical things the government can do. First of all, the
government can't do everything. The government is a partner. For those of
you who think the government can solve all problems, this is not the way it
works. Most problems are solved locally. First -- one thing the government
can do is to spend money on research. In other words, we can be a partner
with enterprise.

Do you realize that the Internet came to be as a result of federal
government research into basic sciences? In other words, research yields
practical applications that improve people's live -- is what I'm trying to
say. And so I proposed to Congress that we double basic research programs
in physical sciences over the next 10 years. (Applause.)

They tell me that by doing so, we'll be the leader in nanotechnology
research. I'm just beginning to understand what that means. (Laughter.) But
the smart people tell you, if you're the leader in nanotechnology research
you'll be the leader in quality jobs and quality of life.

The second thing that the Congress needs to do is to encourage private
investment in research and development. As a matter of fact -- this makes
sense -- most of the research done in the United States is done through the
private sector. About two-thirds of it is done through private sector
research; 15,0000companies take advantage of what's called the research and
development tax credit. It's part of our tax code. It says, if you spend
money on research, you'll be rewarded through the tax code.

Seems to make sense, if we're trying to encourage people to spend private
sector dollars. The problem is, is that the research and development tax
credit is only a temporary measure. And so, you're a CEO of a major company
like Intel, or a CEO of a small company that's thinking about spending
research dollars, and you're uncertain as to whether or not that research
and development tax credit will be available.

People don't plan big amounts of money to invest on a short-term basis.
It's important to provide stability in the tax code so that the planners
and thinkers and investors have confidence that if they make an investment
five years from now, the reason they made the investment in the first place
-- besides trying to improve product lines -- the reason they made the tax
-- the reason they made the investment because of tax incentive will still
exist. And so Congress needs to make the research and development tax
credit a permanent part of our tax code to encourage more private sector
research to keep America on the leading edge of innovation. (Applause.)

Finally -- you'll be happy to hear -- (laughter) -- how do we make sure the
folks who are going to be running this economy, our workers and
entrepreneurs, have the skill set necessary to do so? How do we encourage
people to stay focused on math and science? And that's really an important
subject. I -- here's what the government can, and should do.

First of all, we passed the No Child Left Behind Act. It's a great piece of
legislation. It basically says, let's raise standards and measure. I can
remember people said, why would you want the government to cause people to
measure? I said, because we're spending a lot of money. If you're running a
business and you're spending money, you want to measure. You want to look
at results. People in America want to know, you see? And if a child can't
read at the third grade, we want to know why. And we also want to be able
to analyze curriculum to determine if that's one of the reasons why. And
equally importantly, by diagnosing, you're able to say, this child deserves
extra help.

I strongly believe all government is locally controlled. However, I believe
that it's the responsibility of government that spends money to say to
those who designed the curriculum, please, show us whether or not you're
achieving results; and if not, correct what you're doing and solve problems
early before they're too late. We need to send that same spirit into --
that we've got in reading in the No Child Left Behind Act into math.

Now, the positive news is that we're doing fine, relative to the rest of
the world, in math in the early grades. And you know why we know? We
measure. I can remember when I was governor of Texas and we didn't measure,
people would say, gosh, my schools are doing great -- until the kids
graduated from school and they couldn't read very well and then had to be
re-educated at college. Measuring lets you know. Measuring let's you
compare. And measuring lets us know how we're doing with the rest of the
world. If we're in a competitive world, we want to make sure our students
can compete.

And we're doing fine in the fourth grade. We're doing lousy in junior high.
Something happens between elementary school, where our teachers are able to
get the kids interested in math and they test well, to junior high. And
that's where we ought to emphasize focus. In the early -- in the initiative
-- in the reading initiative in No Child Left Behind, we say that if you're
not up to grade level, there's extra money for you. It's called
supplemental services. There's extra money to correct problems early before
they're too late.

We're now going to ask Congress to apply that same supplemental service to
junior high kids in math. If the kids aren't testing well in math in junior
high, in other words, if they're part of the falloff, let's intervene.
Let's make sure there's tutorials available, after-school mathematics
available, for these children so that they can remain competitive.

And they'll go to high school. So how can we help in high school? Well, one
thing that we've learned is that our teachers have got to have the skill
set necessary to teach the skills in math and science. And one effective
program -- and Laura and I are fixing to go to Dallas after this to herald
this program -- is an advanced placement program. And the federal
government can be a partner in helping teachers train to be AP teachers.
Advanced placement works. Advanced placement raises standards. Advanced
placement gives teachers the tools to teach kids to take this advanced
placement test, which is a measurement. It's a go-by to determine how
competitive our workforce can be in the 21st century.

And finally, we want to get 30,000 adjunct professors into classrooms.
That's a fancy word for saying we want engineers and chemists and
physicists in places like Intel, or retired professionals, to go in the
classroom and excite students about the possibility of math and science.
That's what we need. We need role models. We need people walking into a
classroom full of youngsters and say, you're not going to believe how cool
this profession is. You're not going to believe the horizons that will be
available to you. And one of the things Craig has encouraged Intel to do is
do just that.

And so here's an initiative that makes sense. Here's a chance for
Republicans and Democrats to put aside all the foolishness that's going on
in Washington and come together and get something done for the future of
this country.

And I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to lay out the strategy.
And now I want to turn this over to Craig Barrett. He's the CEO of this
company. He, himself -- he probably won't tell you this, but I will -- is
an engineer, highly qualified engineer. I asked him last night where he
spent most of his youth. He said on the Stanford campus. And here he is now
the CEO of one of the great companies. He was able to take his degree --
for those of you who are interested in whether or not a degree makes sense
-- he took his engineering degree, and now he runs one of the world's
preeminent companies. And he's sitting right here. (Applause.)

MR BARRETT: Thank you, Mr. President. You said absolutely all the right
things, from my perspective. As I look at the U.S. economy, the major
driving force has been technology in the high-tech area over the last
several decades. It's going to be that way going forward. The base of
technology is math and science, as I think we all know, so the ability to
get young people educated in math and science to a higher level comparable
to their international counterparts is very important.

And that's why Intel, as a company, has worked with just about everyone
around this table. We built Nicole's high school. And she was a finalist in
the International Science and Engineering Fair last year. (Applause.)

We helped educate Justin, who is an employee here. He got an MBA while he
was here. He's now off in a start-up, an entrepreneur. We work with Chris
and Matt in educating young people, New Mexicans, in math and science and
to appreciate that technology. And one of the reasons we really do that
here in New Mexico is we have 55,000 employees here; we want those jobs to
go primarily to New Mexicans. They need to be educated. Frankly, they were
worried about Texans coming in here and taking over all the jobs.
(Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: That's nothing new. Either that, the ski slopes. (Laughter.)

MR. BARRETT: And, obviously, we work with Dr. Hunter and Sandia. We've had
a long interactive relationship in joint projects that move technology
forward. So we try to interact with all aspects of the community. We do
believe that one of the most important things is, in fact, teacher
training. And one of our major programs around the world has been training
teachers to bring technology in the classroom. We've trained over 3 million
teachers around the world.

THE PRESIDENT: Really?

MR. BARRETT: We've trained 30 percent of the K-through-12 teachers here in
New Mexico on how to bring that technology in the classroom, make it -- not
just technology, but make every subject more interesting for kids -- math,
science, English, history. You pick the subject, you can use technology to
make it more interesting.

Our company is very proud to spend over $100 each year on education. And
that's basically in the local communities and across the United States and
around the world. We think every child -- not just here in New Mexico, but
every child ought to have the opportunity to learn and to develop to their
fullest. And we take that as part of our corporate responsibility.

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. (Applause.) One of the good things about
being the President is you tend to draw cameras. (Laughter.) Good or bad,
depending on your perspective. I hope people listening hear what Craig has
just said, those particularly in CEO America, corporate America, that there
is such a thing as corporate responsibility. He said, I take this
responsibility serious. It's in your interest, by the way, to help train a
teacher. It's in your interest to provide a scholarship. It's in your
interest to help a young group of Americans learn math and science because,
after all, if you intend to stay in business, you better have a workforce
that's capable.

And so, thanks for setting such a good example. Thanks for joining us.

We're also joined today by Tom Hunter. He's the president of Sandia. The
last time I was with him, we were standing out kind of in a desert area,
and he fired up one of these new solar research beams. (Laughter.) All I
can tell you is I was glad I wasn't at the other end of the beam.
(Laughter.) But they're doing some good stuff when it comes to research and
development here at Sandia.

Welcome. Thanks for being here. What's on your mind?

DR. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I should say it's a real
pleasure today to represent, I presume, about 10,000 of the most committed
and best men and women in the national security role and support for our
economy and our energy future. It's probably important to say, though, that
this initiative could not have been more important to the future of the
country, and could not be more important to me.

As I look back on my life, I actually was born, of course, a number of
years ago, but in a place and time when opportunities weren't that great. I
was a middle child of a recently widowed mother, and the economic
conditions were not good. I ended up through that period having a mother
who loved me and encouraged me about some things -- education and hard
work. And because of that I was able to arrive at a position where I can
represent this fine institution and be seated with you today.

And it makes me feel good that those values of education are so important
in this initiative that you have. As we look forward, though, which is
going to be absolutely critical I think to this country in how we work
across the global, we're going to do some new thinking. It's going to be
necessary to not look back at how we have done science and engineering in
the past, but look ahead and ask questions about, how can we encourage the
scientific thought from its very roots? How can we reengineer, if you will,
engineering? How can we say there are different ways to do things than
we've done in the past?

We have just begun to realize the important power of these large
supercomputers that are now present everywhere. As I sit here today, a few
miles away at our laboratory there's a computer doing something like 40
trillion calculations every second. And that allows people to realize and
see things they could never have dreamed of years ago.

We're also seeing now -- and Intel being one of the most prominent examples
-- what I call small, smart things that will redefine how all of our lives
work, from our ability to understand the functions of the human body to how
we process information, to how we provide lighting -- all those questions.
And, finally, looking very deep at the atoms, themselves, and asking, how
can we build them up in a way that allows new material to be created? How
can we understand how they go. This nanotechnology is opening a new
frontier.

So as we think about educating this next generation of scientists,
engineers, technicians, it's really critical that we just think differently
and newly about how we can have a prominent role in those areas across the
globe.

Our view is to help -- view of ourselves and our institution is to help
partner with all the people that you see on this table, and to try to bring
forward new ways to look at education and support for education and be
prominent in that. And we have a large number of partnerships to do so, not
only here, but with every university across the country. And I'm proud to
be able to be a part of that -- proud you called such prominent attention
to it, and thank you for being here.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, let me ask you something. I think it's very important
for people listening to understand when you say nanotechnology that it's
got an application to their life. In other words, when the federal
government says we're going to spend money on research, the taxpayers got
to understand that there's something -- their life is going to improve. And
the question is how.

The other day, I was talking about how research is -- I mean, how
technology has changed our strategy, and I ended with te example, I
remember driving across Texas playing the license plate game, and they're
driving across Texas watching a DVD. And it all happened in 20 years.

But when you talk about supercomputing will have an application that could
help somebody, or nanotechnology, share an example with people.

Dr. Hunter: Well, let me give you an example. If you look at the lights in
this room or other places, you'll find that about 20 percent of electricity
is devoted to lighting, just to make light, at night and as we see today.
If you could understand how to change the atoms in one of these little
photo-diodes that -- and rearrange them in such a way that you could put a
little electricity and out would come light, then you could end up, by a
factor of ten, changing the energy consumption just in lights all across
the globe.

The issue, of course, is how you make white light. Today we can make lots
of red light and other colors, but we can't make white light. So with
research, going in and bending the atoms around a bit, we can figure out
how to make that lighting just so much more efficient. And I predict, like
DVDs in the cars across Texas, that you'll see lighting in a few years
which is all done by other means, and save us enormous amount of energy.

THE PRESIDENT: Yesterday we saw nanotechnology being applied to a fuel
membrane that will go into a hydrogen-powered automobile at some point in
time, which means we'll be using hydrogen as opposed to extract from oil,
the byproduct of which will be water. And it's coming. And technology and
research will help us achieve that. We want to be the ones with the
hydrogen breakthrough. It means there will be jobs here for American that
will improve your quality of life, as well.

Okay, thanks. Good job.

Matt, welcome. Tell everybody what you do.

DR. PLEIL: Okay, I'm Matt Pleil. I'm a faculty member at TVI Community
College in Albuquerque. I joined them about three years ago, and with
support from Perkins Grants and NSF funding, I've been able to work on a
microsystems education program. I'm the Principal Investigator for the
Southwest Center for Microsystems Education. And what we're doing now --

THE PRESIDENT: Wait, let me stop you a minute. NSF is the National Science
Foundation. Don't speak in initials, because we're -- (laughter.)

DR. PLEIL: I'm originally from industry, and everything was an acronym.
(Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: That's right. Imagine what it would be like if you were
originally from government.

DR. PLEIL: They have longer acronyms. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: National Science Foundation. And you're doing what?

DR. PLEIL: I'm working creating educational materials for college students,
and also for college and high school teachers so that we can teach the
future technologists about microsystems, which a lot of people don't know
much about.

THE PRESIDENT: And microsystems are what?

DR. PLEIL: Well, microsystems are here and now, and they include the
circuitry that Intel produces, but also micromachines, as well. And we're
collaborating with Sandia National Labs. They're on the cutting edge of
making surface micromachines, it's called. And I've been fortunate enough
to work there part-time, learn from Sandia and help them create educational
materials that they use in their University Alliance program.

And we've also been able to train teachers at several workshops. So we're
creating a group of folks now that are understanding microsystems and
hopefully energizing the kids in school.

THE PRESIDENT: And is there an interest -- I presume with Intel being here,
it serves as a magnet for kids to say, gosh, that's a good place to work. I
need the skill set necessary, and TVI provides that skill set.

DR. PLEIL: Absolutely, Intel supported TVI over the years to create our
semiconductor manufacturing technology program. We have a teaching clean
room that was sponsored primarily by Intel, and many of our students go and
work for Intel. In fact, one of my students is actually working in the lab,
probably today.

THE PRESIDENT: We hope so. (Laughter.) It's interesting, isn't it -- I want
to kind of take off on what Matt was talking about. One of the really great
assets we have in America is the community college or technical school
system. And the reason why is, is that these schools tend to be
market-driven. And by that I mean the curriculum adjusts to the needs of
the local folks. And what he just said was, is that here's a job provider,
here's an education institute -- they collaborated to design a curriculum
that actually means something to the graduate.

I'm not saying my history degree didn't mean anything. (Laughter.) It did,
it meant a lot. But, nevertheless, if you're interested in work, and you're
getting out of school and you want to be trained in a job which actually
exists, this collaboration is a vital part. And I urge communities all
across the country to utilize their community college or their technical
vocational schools, to work with the local industry to design curriculum
that matters.

And so one of the ways to make sure that we're competitive in the 21st
century is to adequately utilize our community college system, and make
sure that they are incented to constantly adjust by working with the job
providers.

And so thanks for bringing that up. It's an interesting idea, and I bet a
lot of people in Albuquerque didn't even know this is going on. And for
people who are looking to find work, you ought to look at the TVI as an
opportunity. And the other thing people ought to do -- you may be 35 years
old or so; there's money to help you upgrade your job skills. And what
education does, it enables you to become a more productive worker. And as
your ability to be a more productive worker increases, so do your wages.
Education adds -- makes it more likely you're going to have a higher wage.
And that's what Matt is doing -- I think that's what you just said.
(Laughter.)

DR. PLEIL: Yes, absolutely. Thank you. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Good job. Now, we've got an interesting person here, Nicole
Lopez. Nicole, welcome. Tell people your story, if you don't mind.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: You have learned to communicate. (Laughter.) That was
fantastic. So what are your dreams?

MS. LOPEZ: I plan on going to the University of New Mexico and major in
civil engineering. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. This isn't exactly on the subject, but it is kind
of -- Laura is involved, leading what's called Helping America's Youth. The
whole spirit of the program is a mentor can make a difference in a person's
life; that we can change America one heart at a time. A person can, by just
taking time out of his or her life and surrounding somebody with love and
compassion, can make a significant contribution to the country.

And so you just described the whole spirit of Helping America's Youth. You
also just described the true strength of the country. Our country's
strength is not our military or the size of our wallet, it's the fact that
there are millions of people that have got great heart who want to improve
somebody else's life, love a neighbor like they'd like to be loved
themselves.

Nicole, so you're interested in sciences, obviously.

MS. LOPEZ: Yes, I have found that math and science have become my niche and
it's my passion, and I want to continue it.

THE PRESIDENT: Awesome. You know, a lot of people probably think math and
science isn't meant for me -- it kind of seems a little hard, algebra. I
can understand that, frankly, but -- (laughter.) I'm looking for a mentor,
by the way. (Laughter.) Both in math and English. (Laughter and applause.)
But I hope people listening and hear Nicole's story take a look at math and
science. I'm sure there's some -- kind of the "nerd patrol." (Laughter.)
It's not, it's the future. That's what Nicole just said -- she said the
future is engineering and physics and chemistry and math.

Really good job, by the way. Thanks for coming.

Chris Baca is with us. Chris, why don't you give everybody your job
description.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Clubhouses, go ahead and explain what that is.

MR. BACA: Clubhouses are -- Intel has provided both mentors and equipment
and actually a design for a clubhouse that involves using state of the art
technology.

THE PRESIDENT: You mean there's a physical plant that people go to where
there's the latest technology?

MR. BACA: Exactly it. And that's located right in a neighborhood where you
won't -- you wouldn't expect it to be.

THE PRESIDENT: And you run the clubhouse?

MR. BACA: Yes, sir. My program runs the clubhouse.

THE PRESIDENT: I mean the program. Good.

MR. BACA: And so the kids can walk from -- after school, we get these
little kids dropping in. They don't even go home. They stop by. We help
them do their homework, and then they can play.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Chris just laid out the strategy which is government,
corporate, community involvement -- all aiming at making sure that we save
the lives of our children, and not only saves their lives, but give them
the skills necessary to be productive leaders into the 21st century.

You're right, old guys like us, we'd better be -- count on the next
generation to -- (laughter) -- now, we got to make sure they got the
skills. Finally -- we want to make sure that we're in entrepreneurial
heaven, and by that I mean that if you've got the instinct and the drive to
start your own business, that that you'll be comfortable in doing so.
Government can't guarantee your product is successful. We can guarantee you
-- good legal policy, good tax policy, good regulator policy, and then go
for it.

And one of the things that I notice about our country when I travel the
world is we really are entrepreneurial heaven. We got people from all walks
of life saying, I want to realize my dream. One of them is Justin Sanchez.

Welcome, Justin. Let her rip.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I think it's going to happen. I think what you're talking
about is that one of these days our homes are going to be little sources of
power, and to the extent that we have excess power, we'll feed it back into
the grid.

MR. SANCHEZ: That's right, that's absolutely correct.

THE PRESIDENT: How far away are we from that, in terms of your thinking?

MR. SANCHEZ: You know, solar is a technology that the time has come, and I
think with some of the more recent innovations and some of the things that
we're doing now, in the next five to ten years you could see that happen.

THE PRESIDENT: One reason why it makes sense for the taxpayers to have
research and development into solar energy, which we're doing through the
Energy Department, in collaboration with Sandia Labs, is because he's just
describing a product that's going to come as a result of the research money
spent, and that is, it's conceivable that you'll have a little unit on top
of your house that will power your own house, and that to the extent that
you don't use the power generated from the unit, you actually sell it back
to the grid, so you become a mini-power plant.

MR. SANCHEZ: Absolutely. A million mini-power plants.

THE PRESIDENT: And what's the average age of your team, would you say?

MR. SANCHEZ: Average age of the team? Well, that's a good question.

THE PRESIDENT: Management team. Thirty?

MR. SANCHEZ: Forty.

THE PRESIDENT: Forty? Old guys.

MR. SANCHEZ: Of the management team, or the team?

THE PRESIDENT: Management team.

MR. SANCHEZ: Management team, it's probably closer to 50.

THE PRESIDENT: Really?

MR. SANCHEZ: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: So you're bringing down the average.

MR. SANCHEZ: Bringing down the average. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: We want Justin Sanchezes of the country to dream big dreams
and to think big. Look at the product they're thinking about. I mean, this
is a big idea. And there's people willing to risk capital on the idea, and
you're willing to risk time in it.

MR. SANCHEZ: Absolutely.

THE PRESIDENT: And it's going to happen, isn't it?

MR. SANCHEZ: It will happen.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, and America will be better off for it. This is a good
way to end, for our people to understand there's a direct connection
between research and development, technology, and quality of life. This
country has a chance -- it needs to make a choice: Are we going to lead, or
are we going to fear the future? I hope after this discussion, people
sitting around here and listening ought to realize we ought not to fear the
future, but shape the future, and continue to be the leader. And by
leading, our people will realize a more peaceful world and a more
prosperous world, and a chance to realize dreams. And that's what America
has been all about in the past and it should be about in the future.

Listen, thank you all for the panel. It's been a great discussion. God
bless. (Applause.)

END 10:05 A.M. MST
===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060203-6.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)