President Hunter Rawlings, Convocation Committee Chair Kevin-William Hughes, Class of 2000 President Julie Dittmer, parents, relatives, friends. I am proud to join with you to celebrate and honor the young men and women who [tomorrow receive] their degrees from Cornell University -- one of the finest universities in the nation.

On behalf of all of your friends, family and professors here today - congratulations on your tremendous achievement, congratulations on being the class of 2000.

Today is a turning point in all of your lives. There will be some people - usually older people - who will say to you that your college years are the best years of your life. And I'm sure that you - having recently crammed for finals and having just pulled all-nighters to finish a thesis or a research paper - must be praying that they're wrong.

Well, they're right and wrong.

You'll probably never find a better late night snack than the Poor Man's Pizza at the Hot Truck - especially after one of those all-nighters.

You may never enjoy a better meal than the pasta at Little Joe's.

For those over the age of 21, you'll probably never taste a better beer than the drafts at Ruloff's.

And you'll probably never meet another group of friends who get to see you grow and mature and learn so much as the friends you hiked up the slope with here at Cornell.

But the excitement is just beginning. The best times of your life - the great adventures of your life - are just beginning.

And they're beginning at a historic time. We live in a new world where everything is changing.

It is a world that rewards knowledge like never before in our history and it is a world that is seeking advice and expertise from young people like never before.

It is a world where one entrepreneur with ideas can start a new industry; one person can splice a gene and cure a worldwide disease, one individual can produce a song that is heard from Beijing to Boston.

In 1993, when most of you were in high school, there were 13 websites on the web. That's it. 13. Today, 7 years later, there are more than 14 million websites on the web.

That is the speed with which technology and knowledge is changing the world. And it's your world, not mine and not your parents'.

And you're about to enter this exciting world armed with an education that puts you at the top of the pyramid.

It's an exciting time to be young and educated, and it's an exciting time to be making choices that really affect your life.

And what that means is that if ever there was a time to take a chance on yourself - to take some risks, to see what you are capable of and what your destiny may be - the time is now. Go for it!

Sometimes you'll make the right choices; other times you'll make the wrong guess. No one is immune.

But the best advice I can give you is this: Take the risk and don't let the fear of failure deter you.

If my experience, and those of my friends, is at all relevant - if you take the risk and fail, you can almost always recover.

And if - through hard work and a little luck and a little prayer - you succeed, your life will be enriched forever.

Now, I have learned my own lessons. When I was finishing my senior year in college just as you are, I was offered a scholarship where I would travel the world - all expenses paid - for a year.

I had never been to another country. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

At the same time, I met a girl and fell in love.

And I was torn - do I choose the girl or do I choose the scholarship? I couldn't have both.

So I chose the girl. I see all of the romantics in the audience are pleased.

That summer she went on a vacation to Europe. I was waiting at the airport when she came back in August. In those days a staircase was pushed up against the plane and passengers stepped down on to the tarmac.

As soon as she got off the plane and I saw the expression on her face, I knew it was over.

She dumped me before Labor Day. I made the wrong choice and I paid for it with my heart and my head - no scholarship, no trip around the world, no girl.

Somehow I got past it and three years later, I graduated from Law School.

Like most of you - my parents were sitting in the audience filled with pride.

On the way home from graduation, I broke the news to my parents that I wasn't going to join a law practice like we planned. I told them I wanted to run for public office.

My parents were shocked. My mother, particularly, was very disappointed.

I grew up in a working class family that struggled to put their kids through college. My parents hoped that I would become a big lawyer and make a lot of money.

But my heart wasn't in it.

I was drawn to public service. I wanted to do something that would excite me and challenge me every day.

My parents thought I was making a huge mistake. But it was a risk I wanted to take.

That summer, at the age of 23, I ran for the New York State Assembly. I had three opponents - the Party's candidate, a neighborhood activist, and then there was my mother who was telling her friends not to vote for me so I would get this silly idea of being an elected official out of my thick head.

Well, I didn't get the girl but I won the election.

So on this day; on your day of achievement - my advice to you is the advice I gave myself 25 years ago. Go for it.

Don't let hear of failure deter your from taking a chance, from reaching for your dream - particularly in this day and age - go for it.

By graduating from a tremendous school you've earned the right to take chances. Not every chance will pan out - that's a promise.

But when you think of some of the great Cornell grads - National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Wall Street Wizard Abby Joseph Cohen, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, National Hockey League President Gary Bettman, Pulitzer Prize author Toni Morrison, Attorney General Janet Reno - they took chances. They bet on themselves.

I'm sure they met up with some brick walls along the way, but they persevered. So will you.

Now I'd like to mention a subject where America is taking a risk, but if we choose poorly we may not so easily recover.

We are betting that our current education system is sufficient for this new, global, competitive, ideas-based world that we now live in. I fear it is not.

It is clear that our greatest resource, bar none, is not the minerals in our mines or the fertility of our soil, but the minds of our young people.

As Alan Greenspan said: Value is no longer added by moving things, but by thinking things.

That means the places in the world that generate the best ideas will dominate our new century. And the best ideas will come from the best educational system.

There is no doubt that America is the most important economic nation in the world. There is no doubt that we have the strongest military. There is no doubt that when you look at the economic sectors which are going to lead the 21st century - computers, the internet, medicine, research, science, telecom, financial services, entertainment, and trade - no country is better situated to take full advantage of that economy than ours.

But we have one major problem - one major storm cloud - that threatens America's future. Our schools are simply not good enough.

Yes, in some places the schools are excellent, but in too many inner cities, suburbs, and farm towns - they are not.

And yet, as parents, as students, as graduates - we all know that if the next generation is going to keep America on top - we have to do a much better job of educating.

So when you look into the crystal ball to predict the future, it is irrefutable that our national and economic security depends upon reforming and enhancing our education system.

I am generally a fiscal moderate - I support a balanced budget - but I'll say this: Our major public investment must be to make our schools from K through college better. We must embark on a Marshall Plan to make our schools the best in the world - not 15th, not 2nd, but number 1.

And there are four parts to this Marshall Plan.

First, we have to make teaching an exalted profession that attracts top quality young people.

In the 21st century a teacher should hold as high a place in our society as a doctor did in the 20th century. But today, to choose teaching as a profession is to sacrifice earning power. That's why we have a shortage of 25,000 qualified math and science teachers in America.

That is why there are twice as many 50 year old teachers as there are 30 year old teachers.

But to depend on each community to engage in a bidding war to attract new teachers won't work, because local property taxes are already too high.

We have a national teaching problem so the federal government needs to help solve it.

We should forgive student loans for any teacher who teaches at least five years in the classroom.

Those who choose to teach should be offered scholarships to help defray the cost of an education degree, and with federal assistance we should reward the best teachers with better pay.

This will raise the earnings power of teachers without raising local taxes. And it will help attract young, eager, dedicated professionals to the classroom without asking them to sacrifice their standard of living.

Second, we need higher standards in our schools. Students should go to the next grade because they learned, not because they got one year older.

To lower the bar is a mistake. If a student is having problems, then that student should be helped, but it is unacceptable for students to be promoted if they are not learning.

Third, working with the private sector we should hook up every classroom to the internet and teachers should be taught to teach on it. Every student should leave high school completely computer literate.

It is so vital in today's working world.

Fourth, every deserving student should be able to afford college.

A college degree is such an imperative that the federal government shouldn't take its cut while you are struggling to provide what you know is right for your children.

I have a plan to make college tuition fully tax deductible because it is nearly impossible to succeed without a degree and it is simply wrong that parents have to pour their life savings into college costs and students have to go deep into debt to get the right kind of education.

I see 3,000 parents nodding their head yes.

This decade has proven that America - with its free enterprise and democratic form of government - is poised to lead the world into the next century.

But I am troubled when I read that other country's school systems are doing a better job of educating their children than we are.

We have to get working on this Marshall Plan - not next year, not next week, but today.

This morning you arrived with your family as students. You completed a rigorous course of study. Tonight you will celebrate with your family as graduates.

Your parents are proud. Your brothers and sisters are proud. Your friends are proud.

Your life's adventure is just beginning.

In the society we are entering - take a chance on yourself. Go for it.

And when you have doubts, like we all do, perhaps you'll remember this passage from Rudyard Kipling's "if".

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be an adult my child.

When Kipling wrote that 100 years ago, he said "Be a man, my son." I've modernized it to reflect the modern day.

Thank you. Congratulations. Godspeed. And good luck.