President Wants Smaller Classes

In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Clinton pushed for education legislation aimed at cutting class sizes, reports CBS News Correspondent Dan Scanlan.

"It comes to our childrens' future. Politics must stop at the schoolhouse door," President Clinton said.

The President urged Senate Republican leaders to allow a vote on a proposal that would provide grants for schools to hire more teachers.

Mr. Clinton said he wants to reduce the national average of pupil/teacher ratios in the first through third grades from 22 students per teacher to just 18.

Senate Republicans have blocked a proposal to provide another round of grants to help schools reach the goal Mr. Clinton set in 1998 of hiring 100-thousand new teachers.

President Clinton says the choice is simple: "smaller classes, or more partisanship."